Due to the lack of qualified aspirants for the position during the election, the office of the Financial Secretary was one that was filled after the election. As a result, Miss Christabel Uche-Orji was not subjected to the amount of public scrutiny the elected executives encountered in their bid for their respective offices. Nevertheless, like the others, she was required to state and present her plans for the just-concluded tenure. We shall be taking a look at her performance in this tenure based on both her constitutional duties and other plans she promised to deliver. According to Article VIIb of the Association’s Constitution, the Financial Secretary;
• Shall be responsible for all business ventures of the Association
• Shall be the head of the fund-raising committee of the Association.
• Shall keep records and custody of all receipts of withdrawals and payments.
• Shall perform all such other duties as are hereinafter allocated to him under other articles of this constitution and by the Executive Council.
On the subject of the business ventures of the association, it was stated in her plans that she intended to revive the ventures, review the items being sold there and introduce new merchandise. The ventures were indeed revived as the space was leased out in September 2022 with the occupant paying the association the sum of eighteen thousand naira.
As the head of the fundraising and finance committees, she intended to secure more partnerships for the association so as to ease the financial burden. Going by her account of stewardship which she presented on the 12th of April, it appears as if she was successful in doing so, but the fine details of these partnerships were not included in her account. When contacted to shed more light on this, she remained unresponsive. In addition, she and the other members of the executive council were able to re-establish relationships with the honorary members and staff advisers of the Association who made donations towards the health week. Some of the challenges she faced while being in charge of these committees include the inactivity of constituent members and the unstable nature of the city during the cash scarcity and the elections which affected the process of sourcing partnering companies for the Health Week.
The Financial Secretary, in conjunction with the Treasurer, was responsible for administrating the Association’s account and ensuring the funds were appropriately spent. She and the treasurer made financial reports which were duly provided at the different required points during the session.
Asides from her constitutional duties, she included in her plans her intention to continue the sales of clinical materials to new clinical students as her predecessors had done. Though was carried out, she faced the challenge of low patronage because of the lack of information from the College of Medicine on the resumption schedule of the 300-level class.
There was also mention of a trade fair being organised as a way to promote the businesses of members of the organization. Unfortunately, this is a plan that never came to fruition for reasons which will remain unknown as Miss Christabel showed a lack of willingness to be interviewed thus leaving her reasons for her inability to carry out this plan to speculation.
To provide a summary, the immediate past financial secretary was able to perform her constitutional duties to a satisfactory level. However, it seems that most of the plans which fell outside these duties were neglected. While it would have been lovely to gain more insight into the challenges she faced while performing in this role, we can only look forward to the upcoming elections and hope that her successor would match or even surpass her performance.
Onyinyechi Osisiogu
