A Report of Unilorin LSS SRC sitting of Thursday 11th May, 2017.

The Law Students' Society of the University of Ilorin had its plenary session on Thursday, 11th of May, 2017 at the faculty's Moot Court.

Initially, the proposed time for the session was 12pm but was delayed till exactly 2:30pm before it eventually kicked off.

The Speaker of the House; Hon. Kawu presided over the sitting. The opening prayer was given by the clerk; Hon. Mausi (300L constituency).

The major issue of discourse was the proposed  budget presentation and scrutiny. The speaker queried the LSS President for the absence of his fellow executive members at the last sitting. Responding to this, the President claimed that the reasons for their absence were unknown to him because he, the Vice President and the Financial Secretary were having a meeting with the faculty management before the commencement of the sitting.

Hon. Taiwo (500L constituency), Hon. Tunji (200L constituency), and Hon. Hamid (300L constituency) lamented on the absence of other members of the executive council which according to Hon. Hamid, was contrary to Rule 20 of the Standing Order of the House.

Hon. Amadi ( 400L constituency) explained further that the absentee executive members are supposed to be sanctioned and that the absence of the Sports Secretary was due to the fact that the House was yet to notify him of his reinstatement after his indefinite suspension at last semester's sitting.

In the course of the sitting, Hon. Ridwan (500L constituency) and Hon. Hamid held that chambers in the faculty must be summoned to the House for explanation on how they are discharging their duties as required by the Constitution quoting Section 40(1 & 4) of the LSS Constitution.

Interestingly, Hon. Hamid queried the Gen. Secretary; Mr Nurudeen, for not distributing sourveniers for 300L students and the latter explained that it was due largely to delay in the distribution of the sourveniers. In his words, "the printing of sourveniers is the work of past administration and efforts had been put in place to collect the remaining ones from the publisher. It would be ready for distribution by next week Monday."  He concluded his remark with an apology tenderer before the House.

Sequel to this, there were extensive debates as to whether or not the budget submitted be scrutinized. The reasons for this were premised on the following: budget irregularity, absence of signature as required by the LSS Constitution, and lastly, that the budget was improperly served.

The President of the Society; Comrade Abd. Rahmon tendered his apology on the floor of the House for the defects in the budget. He however gave reasons for the shortcomings in the budget.

While defending the budget, the president mentioned the proposed projects for the semester which included: Annual Moot an Mock competition, LSS Community Outreach, Inter- Chambers Moot and Mock Trial, the Jurist Journal, renovation of lecture rooms and repairs/installation of gadgets, repairs of the LSS bus and finally, printing of the LSS Constitution.

The House reacted to the budget and it was re-emphasized that the expenses were too much for the Society to bear. Therefore, it was necessary to cut one's coat according to one's cloth.

After that, the Vice President was called upon to defend her own proposal and the House reacted to it. It was made known to the Vice President that it was not all the programmes that could be executed considering the financial status of the Society.

Other executive members that were called upon to defend the budget were; the General Secretary (Comrade Nurudeen), the PRO (Comrade Mariam), and the Social Director ( Comrade Khalid).

After exhaustive deliberation, it was suggested by the Speaker that a whole Saturday should be dedicated for budget ratification when the prepared version is submitted. Hon. Amadi suggested that the LSS Press should be enshrined in the LSS Constitution that is currently under review.

The house constituted a committee to look into the items listed in the proposal submitted after which it adjourned proceedings till Tuesday, 16th of May, 2017 by 12pm at the same venue.

Adnan A. Adedimeji,
UCJ, UNILORIN.