By: IndyPress News Desk 

Concerns have been raised about the Students’ Representative Council’s approval of ₦3.3 million for electoral activities without involving the Students’ Union Electoral Commission in the review.

The Electoral Commission expressed discontent with the news, citing that the election budget was not included on the SRC’s agenda list.

Additionally, as of 9 am on Monday, the Electoral Commission had not received a copy of the reviewed and approved budget from the Finance Committee.

IndyPress previously reported that the 11th Assembly approved ₦3,353,125 for the election.

SUEC Logistics Chairman, Olaniyi Sodeeq criticized the Council’s decision, stating, “I expected them to reach out to us to discuss it… Nobody was invited, nobody was called.”

Olaniyi Sodeeq, Chairman of the Logistics Committee and former General Secretary of the Students’ Union pointed at the importance of transparency and collaboration.

“I expected them to reach out to us to discuss it, even let’s assume that exam is fast approaching and all. But I think it’s something that we could have done together and discussed. Even if it will be a subcommittee that would have been set up to discuss this. Nobody was invited, nobody was called. Except the fact that somebody reached out to me and started saying she’s from one finance committee, that she wants to ask me some questions. Because at some point I got confused and I asked her if she has been able to see if she has reached out to the budget committee chairman before now, which she said no. And I told her to, please reach out to the committee chairman first. So, another thing I want to say is that I don’t think it is done anywhere, because the major function or role of the House is ratification. Like let’s have a sitting, let’s discuss this. Let’s see what is needed, what is not needed, like let’s take the opinion of people. You can’t just go ahead and say you cut budget without informing somebody to come and present it, without the interest of people that worked with on this budget. Don’t just go into budget and start cutting and cutting and cutting,” Olaniyi Sodeeq said.

“I think we need to understand the fact that the house responsibility and function should not be reduced to budget division. That is what the majority believes. You see them threatening you even outside your normal formal setting, even joking they will cut your budget when you come to the house. So, the responsibility of the SRC is one of their functions, to ratify, but there are other things,” Sodeeq told IndyPress.

“The breakdown of the budget now (as at press time) we don’t even know what has been reduced, what has been removed. Nobody has reached out to us and is out there that they’ve cut the budget,” Olaniyi Sodeeq added.

Finance Committee Chairman, Hon. Wareez Olosho responded, saying, “All in the budget were pretty clear and didn’t need extra explanations. However, some of my members reached out to them on some specifics and they provided clarity. But they were not fully around during the whole ratification. Also, if you go through their proposed budget and compare it with what we approved, you’ll see that we removed nothing, we just slashed down some inflated prices We removed nothing, we just slashed down some inflated prices.”

“Initially, I don’t even want to sit on the budget coz it has been a practice for the management to just deduct money for electoral committee without considering the approval of the house. But the Speaker insisted. It was just sent to us, not presented on the floor of the house, and we worked on it, some members of my committee reached out to them for clarity on some unclear part, others were pretty clear,” Honorable Wareez added.