The Student leadership at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, which comprises of the Student Union executives and legislators have budgeted N1, 837, 550 to make official phone calls between August, 2015 and January, 2016.

The copy of the budget made available to our correspondent which was debated upon by members of the OAU Student Representative Council on Sunday evening, the leaders also had a separate budget for internet facilities and sending of bulk Short Message Service.

A breakdown of the budget showed that the speaker, Mr. Adebari Aare, proposed to spend N232, 500 for official phone calls for 310 days, while the president of the union also proposed to make calls for 180 days with N108, 000.

Other items that surfaced on the president’s budget were fuelling at the cost of N270,000; bus maintenance, N300, 000; ‘intervention’, N300, 000; and security vote, N300, 000.

Contained in the speaker’s budget is welfare costing N217, 000; long journey and short journey accommodation, N1, 250, 000; long and short journey trip, N500, 000 among others.

When contacted on the telephone, the Chairman, Budget and Finance Committee, Mr. Abayomi Samuel, whose committee also budgeted N114,000 for phone calls, said the budget had not been approved. Samuel, added that some of the expenses had been reduced.

However, our correspondent gathered that students of the university are divided over the budget.

The student union leaders, who in totality budgeted N26, 090, 469 for their various needs, are expecting an income of about N15m.