“One would have expected that the funding of this university would improve to forestall the reoccurrence of such avoidable long strike action” – ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Prof Olusiji Sowande.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Lagos zone, yesterday, appealed to the Oyo and Osun State Governments to find a lasting solution to the lingering crisis rocking their jointly-owned Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho.
The union, who spoke at a press conference held at the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), ordered a two-week “warning strike,” after which, if solutions are not found to the crisis, which according to them is hindering smooth academic work, “then, we should not be blamed for further disruption of academic activities.”
The Zonal Coordinator, Prof Olusiji Sowande, said it was high time the two state governors, Abiola Ajumobi and Rauf Aregbesola, came together to fashion out ways on how to properly fund the university, suggesting that for proper funding and management, the institution should be ceded to one of the states.
He added that if truly the two governors have the interest of the public at heart and to avoid the extinction of the university, progressive measures should be taken as a matter of urgency, citing “bad politics” as one of the major factors hampering the smooth administration of the university.
Sowande called on the general public, prominent and well-meaning indigenes of the two states to prevail on Ajumobi and Aregbesola to fund the institution adequately.
He decried the recent “astronomical” increase of the institution’s school fees, describing it as “provocative and show of lack of sensitivity to the plight of the poor and struggling students of LAUTECH,” Recalling that the LAUTECH local ASUU ended an eight-months-old strike recently over the crisis, the union stated:
“One would have expected that the funding of this university would improve to forestall the reoccurrence of such avoidable long strike action”
