SRA'S TRIP TO ABUJA PECULATION OF PUBLIC FUNDS

SRA'S TRIP TO ABUJA: PECULATION OF PUBLIC FUNDS

It is either you're a blessing or a burden, an asset or a liability and a solution or a problem, in all ramifications, act like a proton and always be objective.

In a democratic system, a government moves on three wheels; the executive that execute project, the legislative that legislate project and the judiciary which is in charge of justice.

In Usmanu Danfodiyo University, the government lies on two elected arms; the Students' Representative Assembly which performs the legislative functions and the Students' Executive Council. In most cases, the Dean of students serves as the Chief Judge and attorney general.

We do not need to travel to Abuja before we know that  legislators are the image makers of every administration, they are elected to represent, make laws, foresee and oversee on behalf of their electorates.

I cannot conceal my disappointment when I came across Facebook posts of some members after kicking out the documents of health bill and moving motion to rename their chamber to Tafawa Balewa because the SU Secretariat was named after Thomas Sankara.

I don't know if I am the only one that saw numerous projects to embark-on with such amount of money, about two hundred thousand Naira, with one hundred thousand, the Union can fumigate the whole hostels every week for the whole of this semester and this will decrease the spread of malaria parasite and premature deaths.

Calamities and grace are natural, unpredictable and unavoidable. It is not a hidden truth that majority of UDUS students cook their foods themselves using different means of fire but our hostels lack safety buckets not to talk of fire extinguishers and our elected representatives chose spending money on trip to Abuja than what will save our lives and properties in future.

Even if I forget everything, I will never forget the definition of 'first aid'--- the first treatment to be given to an injured or sick person before taking him for medication. Our hostels with about 10,000 occupants, the Union owns neither a sachet of paracetamol nor a first aid box but hundreds of thousands of Naira was spent by 32 members in 72 hours of their trip to Abuja.

The puzzle here is, SRA members neither pay higher due than any student nor do they pay dues for any student but they received a separate allocation from the Union's account and decided to embezzle it to National Assembly shunning professors and senior lecturers of Political Science in Usmanu Danfodiyo University.

To this note, the money taken from the Union's account was embezzled because the Congress was not notified before the sneak to Abuja and their are much important projects to embark on, if their trip is to see main legislators in action, they can go to Sokoto State House of Assembly or Kebbi where a lot of the legislators are graduates of Law and Political Science with long time experience or invite a Senator to come and train the entire Danfodites. Union dues are for the Union and not for a set of individuals, the money withdrawn should be remitted for justice and appropriation to reign.

By Habibu Bawa

Photo credit: SRA MEMBERS