Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba, Prof. Femi Mimiko
The
Academic Staff Union of Universities, Adekunle Ajasin University,
Akungba-Akoko branch, has threatened a showdown with the management of
the institution, should it make good its plans to recall students and
lecturers to campus.
The union advised parents to keep their
children at home, warning that members were ready to resist the
management’s plans to reopen the university despite the ongoing strike.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution,
Prof. Olufemi Mimiko, had on Wednesday said he would reopen the
institution if ASUU failed to call off its over two months strike as
quickly as possible.
Mimiko had said the protracted
strike had affected the activities of the university, which, he
said, had enjoyed a stable academic calendar in the last four years.
He said, “We have unbroken four-year
academic calendar before the strike started. The strike has affected
our programmes. It is not in the interest of our students. We hope
ASUU will call off the strike soon, if not, we are considering
taking a measure to bring our students back to the campus.
“Ours is a state university and the
case is different. We don’t have any subsisting agreement with the
ASUU. It is the Federal Government that has issues with the ASUU.”
But the Chairman of ASUU, AAUA, Dr.
Busayo Mekusi, described the VC’s plan as “an attempt to plunge the
institution into an unending crisis.”
He told journalists in Akure on Thursday
that the strike called by the national union would continue and AAUA
branch was committed to what he called “the revamping of public
universities in the country.”
He said, “We advise parents to
restrain their wards from heeding the call as ASUU AAUA is still on
strike, anybody trying to break the ongoing strike meant to better the
lots of our students of tomorrow is an enemy of our future. All the
members of the union should disregard this.”
He refuted the claims that the
university had no subsisting agreement with the Federal Government,
arguing that the ongoing struggle had given AAUA access to N1.05bn so
far from the Federal Government allocation.
He said, “We are committed to the
strike called by the union to push for the implementation of the 2009
agreement; state universities were duly represented during the
processes of negotiation that culminated in the signing of the
agreement and this account for why AAUA has been benefitting from the
proceeds of ASUU struggle as found in the intervention of TETFUND.
“By this purported resumption of
academic activities, the VC seems to be ready to plunge the
institution into crisis as he wants to apply the University of Ilorin
model, which promotes dehumanisation and slavery.”
Meanwhile, ASUU has described the
negotiations, the union had been having with the Federal Government as a
“lip service negotiations.”
The Ibadan acting zonal Coordinator of
ASUU, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, in a statement on Thursday said, “After the
meeting of Tuesday, September 19 with the Vice-President Namadi Sambo,
it is clear that the Federal Government is merely paying lip-service to
education in Nigeria and deceiving the Nigerian public on their
commitment to its transformation agenda. “
He warned students and parents not to be
deceived with the agenda of the government, saying the strike was in
the interest of Nigeria’s educational system.
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