By: Akinjide Adebowale
It is a culture in U.I that the office of the Finance Minister, Treasurer, Financial Secretary or whatever name of its equivalents, has always been a free-ride office for different reasons: electorates only expect the barest minimum from them asides their constitutional duty, and that their tenure go with barely zero accountability on their campaign promises. However, when you finally get to see a Finance Minister's campaign promises, most of them are always similar to what its equivalents would avow. If they are not promising to form a partnership with a fintech, they are swearing to organize a finance seminar. But because of people's barest expectations, eyes barely torchlight their campaign promises.
For Mosope Ogunkeye, Zik Hall's Finance Minister, his whole manifesto did not state any different, and like most cases, nothing of his manifesto has yet seen the light of the day. From the beginning of the session that Mosope has emerged as the hall's Finance Minister, all his plans only remain in the realm of imagination.
Failed Skill Acquisition and Financial Empowerment Program
Mosope started with claiming that being an entrepreneur, he has strong inclination towards empowerment. While cognizant of the UI's eleven weeks' calendar, Mosope promised to bring experts to the hall in empowering Zikites on soft skills like "graphics design, forex trading and copywriting." He figured the importance of these empowerments in preparing Zikites for the "evolving job market."
To do the above, Mosope promised to collaborate with Microsoft Learning Students Ambassador (MLSA) to organize webinars or seminars. But this promise was not even worth more than a mere electioneering promise that dies in the tongues and never comes to fruition.
For somebody who has such a plan, it is expected, to say the very least, that there would be a data-gathering process to know the figure of those who have these skills in the hall, a liaison with them, then the program proper. None of these did Mosope do, and it will, therefore not be wrong that this was never a real plan from the get-go. And like every other Mosope's manifesto, this too, was dead from the day Zikites first heard it.
Absent Accountability and Digital Documentation Promise
One of the plans that would at least, be expected to be relatively achievable is this. Here, the Finance Minister assured Zikites that he would create a digital financial documentation system to foster accountability and easy access to financial records.
Further, Mosope pledged that a digital documentation system will enable "regular financial audit" to be conducted, and this exactly casts a doubt on Mosope's knowledge on financial auditing as the Finance Minister, as the responsibility of auditing belongs solely, not to Mosope himself, but to the Legislative council's audit and budget committee. So, what how does this find its way into Mosope's manifesto in the first place?
Apart from the fact Zik still runs a traditional financial documentation system, from findings through members of the Zik legislative council, the finance Minister has been requested of the hall's account statement running into month's now which he has not provided till this moment.
Judging by what the Finance Minister himself had said in his manifesto and from his unresponsiveness to the House's request of his office, it would not be misplacement of words if the office of the Finance minister is deemed not to have run on utmost accountability.
Financial Literacy...(Sorry), Illiteracy
Sigh. How many more can be said?
In Mosope's further tapestry and trajectory of ideas, he also avowed in his manifesto to establish relationships with CFOs (Chief Financial Officers) of financial institutions. However, with what is, it's either Mosope has established that relationship for himself alone or that he has failed to even establish it at all. From all that cannot ascertained, what can be ascertained is that the end to which Mosope owes this means has not been achieved.
Through his relationships with CFOs, the Finance Minister intended to bring about savings guide, investments guides and other financial guides to boost Zikites' financial literacy. He promised to work with the IPM to post nuggets on the hall's notice board and Zik Hall WhatsApp groups. How more can this promise be adjudged to be a failed one than the fact that there's been no single posting of financial tips on various hall groups or the fact that the notice board has barely been put to use, at least, not by the Finance Minister himself, for any purpose whatsoever.
Unseen Financial and Scholarship Updates
Here, Mosope promised the littlest- to create a WhatsApp or Telegram group where scholarship updates will be shared, to the benefit of Zikites. But as effortless as its execution is, Mosope neither created a group nor he did he drop any updates on the existing ones. As a matter of fact, Mosope is barely active on WhatsApp himself.
Although, the Executive Council were able to raise funds for Bursaries which quite a number of Zikites benefitted from. An achievement, which Mosope promised to do in conjunction with other excos, and which it is worth, taken-for-grantedly, giving him big-ups for. But for all the other numerous promises Mosope vowed to do alone, none is yet, and will definitely see the light of the day. At least, not when the current tenure winds down in a matter of days.
Like his predecessors, Mosope successfully made numerous promises to get votes, but unlike them, he is not going without a proper scrutiny of his campaign promises, which he brilliantly, has failed in.
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