Students' Union Leaders Inspect Ongoing Projects

• Ibikunle-led administration inherited N1.4m from Fjay's tenure

• OAU Students' Union acquire 2 aluta jets

The 11th of January, 2015 was set by the administration of the Students’ Union to bring Press men/ladies and Student Stake Holders together for an interactive session on the projects embarked on and to inspect the projects. 

At the beginning of the interactive session, the Secretary General of the Union, Shittu Ibrahim Olatayo, stated the reasons for the pre-meeting to be for intimating participants about the projects and to let everyone know that there has been no embezzlement of the Union’s funds. He added that the amount of money the current Union administration expected from the University management totaled N18million being the cumulative dues for the three years in which the Union was proscribed. He however put the total amount of money generated in the current tenure from students’ dues between N6 and 8 million, and that the University management has released less than N5 million and it is on the basis of this that projects are been carried out. “There is nothing like N18 million anywhere in the budget we made”, he said.

The President, Ibikunle Isaac M., then took the podium to state the principles of leadership as accountability, transparency and promise of hope, all of which he claimed the leadership is working with, and without which the administration would be doing nothing. He further states: “The administration started with no cash especially during the struggle. There was problem of fund because there was a problem with the transfer of signatories from the previous administration. It was after the school fees increment struggle that N1.4 million from the Fredrick Joel administration was transferred to the administration. First instalment of N2.2 million to the Union was paid by the University Management after the budget was passed and on the 31st of December 2014, the second instalment of N2.1 million was released”.

The president also said that it was from the accumulation of these funds that several expenditures were carried out such as the Freshers’ party, the purchase of two buses (“Jet 2” and “Jet 3” of which “Jet 2” is yet to arrive), the purchase of DSTV for the SUB TV room, purchase of an additional television to the SUB, facelift of the SUB Conference room, the construction of pedestrian bridges between Akintola and Fajuyi Halls and between Fajuyi and Awolowo Hall (which are yet to be completed), and bore holes in Angola and Mozambique Halls. Other proposed projects include making available daily newspapers at the Students’ Union building, a 1,532 bedspace mixed students’ hall of residence (the point of this is however that the current administration wants to start the project for subsequent administrations to continue and complete), an OAU app in the nature of Facebook and LinkedIn is also been worked on and the developer confirmed that it is about 95% completed.

On the bridges, the Welfare Officer in the person of Ajewole Martins said the initial amount budgeted for the two pedestrian bridges was N305,000 but an additional amount of N20,000 was necessary to augment the payment. “On the bore holes, they are not the main source of water”, the president said, “they are just to help augment the school’s regular water supply”. The amount budgeted for the bore hole projects was N215,000 but as it is now, N280,000 has been spent and the contractor who did the work is still been owed, according to the administration.


Credits: ACJ Press Team & Lukmon Fasasi