General Assembly Representative for the School of Languages of the University of Ghana, Abdul Mutalib Iddrisu has lamented over the University of Ghana Students’ Representative Council’s (UGSRC) allocation of GHs 100 to General Assembly members as sitting allowance for the first semester.
This was in response to the contents of the 65th UGSRC budget statement and policy document of the University of Ghana Students ’Representative Council for the first semester of the 2022/2023 academic year. According to the budget, General Assembly Members are to receive a total of GHs 100 as sitting allowance for the first semester as Executive Committee members are set to receive GHs 100 per sitting.
According to Abdul Mutalib Iddrisu, the GHs 100 sitting allowances implies that the hard work of members of the General Assembly are belittled in comparison to the Executive Commitee members in terms of allowances.
“According to the budget, GHs 100 was allocated to those of us at the general assembly for the entire semester and that’s something I see as quite insulting from the SRC because why should a general assembly member receive hundred cedis for the whole semester, but an executive committee member will receive hundred cedis per sitting? That means that as a general assembly member, my toil for the people in my constituency will only merit me hundred cedis but with the [Executive committee], they will have luxurious meetings and at the end, they will take such amount per sitting. That’s unfair.”
Abdul Mutalib alleged that the student leaders who are responsible for the welfare of students tend to be concerned about the privileges that they are entitled to.
“I don’t know if it is all due to the selfish interest of the Executive Committee or what not, but if that’s the case, it is quite disappointing because when students occupy offices, you expect them to do things that are in favour of students but it looks like we have a generation of student leaders who are only concerned about their stomachs and it is really bad,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mudasir Brimah, a Representative of Jean Topp Nelson Hall at the General Assembly also expressed concern over the responsibility and transportation allowances allocated to the UGSRC executives. He stated that UGSRC executives should be more focused on the welfare of the students instead of mismanaging finances for their own pleasure.
“The monies paid to the SRC Executives are supposed to be stipends but when they come, they make it look like they are entitled to it and that it is a must for them to take Uber and other private transportation services. It is just a privilege but they don’t want to understand us and realize that they are ordinary students like us and their focus should always be on students because if today you are serving us as a student leader, one day you may be at the national level and there, if you didn’t manage our resources well, it will come back to haunt you and you will be asked that when you were here, these are the things you did so how sure can we be that you will not mismanage our finances.”
