THE crisis in Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Ago –Iwoye , Ogun State may be a kind of historic replay of the Unilorin saga that shook the nation’s university education .following the sacking of 49 lecturers .
OOU is gradually getting close to becoming a major actor in a looming industrial catastroph action that may rock the nation’s university education sector , if the Governing Council of the institution does not sit up immediately and reverse the sacking of 138 llecturers of the university. It is a situation which if not properly handled by the university and the Ogun State Government which is the proprietor of the school, may lead to a showdown between the university and ASUU nationwide.
It could be recalled that the OOU governing council had last year sacked 138 lecturers for reasons ranging from lack of money to run what it called overbloated staff strength, non obtaining of PhD academic qualification after spending many years in the university andmany other reasons. The sacked lecturers include eight professors and many senior lecturers who are known to have added value to the university over the years.
The ASUU, in a meeting with it’s Ibadan zonal chapter last week at the university of Lagos, vowed to push their case to a logical conclusion with the Ogun State government and governing council of the university in order to rescind their decisions and recall the sacked lecturers. The Union alleged that the university council sacked the lecturers without recourse to due process and smooth running of programmes.
The OOU chapter of ASUU through its chairman,Dr.Adesola Nasir ,declared in the meeting that the university governing council sacked 138 ASUU members of the institution including eight professors, many associate professors and senior lecturers as well as many budding academicians of high quality , stressing that their sack did not follow any known due process in the country’s university education management.
According to him, today in OOU lecturers are allocated between five to ten course per semester in addition to supervising over 50 projects especially among those in Faculty of Education and Management Sciences .
He noted that ,due to poor management and high handedness of the university governing council, ,the university has continued to loss several academic staff who were not sacked to other universities.
‘Those leaving are mostly those with PhD and at least over 30 have left the university since the commencement of the massive sack and unguided rationalisation, he sai.
He said ‘the university council claimed that the university was over staffed in the academic category ,not minding the fact that the present administration quota to OOU was based on the academic staff strength before the mass disengagement.
"We suspect that NUC representatives on the council is not living up to their responsibilities by failing to advice the council against the mass sack and its implication for the approval of the university ‘s programmes. We are watching to see the NUC verdict on OOU’S programmes soon’," he said.
According to him, the University unilaterally terminated the mutually agreed schedule of payment of the outstanding entailment of staff arrears of monetisation salaries and CONUASS ard subsequently refused to have a reviewed programme payment with staff.
In addition,, he stated that the university refused to release the deductions already made from the staff salaries since March 2009,including those made by the present board .
Further disturbed by the university council’s lposture,, he stressed that the council has scrapped faculties and departments without due process and created offices for their cronies or those close to the board members .
According the ASUU chairman, the university management has decided to appoint people to the position of Deans and Provost instead of conducting elections into these positions, regretting that the university instead of retaining staff, have instructed faculties and department to source for associate staff for courses that are yet to be taught.
He also said that given the crisis in the university, the academic staff of the university did not conduct the semester examination, but the management went ahead to hire people outside university to teach students for three times and carrid out the examinations
"There was no examination at the end of the session ,the school arranged for some people from outside the university to teach students for three times and they conducted examinations’, he siad.
On the efforts they have made to resolve the crisis, he said the union has taken the case to the governor, who is the visitor, Ogun State House of Assembly and some prominent sons and daughters of the State, so that they can intervene to put pressure on the council to rescind their action over the illegal termination of appointment.
This intervention he said culminated ina meeting with the governor on January from where a committee was set up to convene a meeting between the union and the council with a view to revising the development at OOU.
According to him,the committee met only once and all efforts to get reconvene it and address issues on ground have proved abortive.’
The Chairman of ASUU, Ibadan zone, Prof Emmanuel Ajisejir said at the meeting that it is the duty of all ASUU members to defend the university system in the interest of the students ,stating that the zone will back the union in an efforts to rescue the university from the ongoing oppression and injustice.
‘ASUU want to reiterate ,once again that our members remain unconvinced about the reality of overstaffing as the excuse for massively sacking of lecturers’ at OOU .A university is place where things should not be done arbitrarily and whenever indications of arbitrariness appears ,people should be free to ask for convincing explanations. To date, no one has been able to provide clear – cut criteria for disengaging seasoned and experienced lecturers and professors at the Olabisi Onabanjo University. .As a major stake holder in the system ,we know the integrity of our programmes hinges on the quantum and calibre of academics that operate them’ he added.
Consequent upon these , he said ASUU has directed all of its members not to take any form of appointment with the university until the crisis are resolved.
‘No ASUU member shall henceforth take any form of appointment, part-time ,visiting sabbatical ,adjunct or full time with Olabisi Onabanjo University ,Ago Iwoye until the crisis of mass sack of lecturers in the university is resolved" he said
The union also called on the Ogun State government and all the prominent citizen in the state to urgently rise up to press on the council to resolve the problems before things gets out of hands .The union also demanded that the university must be compelled to meet and reach agreement with OOU –ASUU to save the university and the nation from further crisis .
The ASUU Ibadan zone, in the meeting resolved to take the mater headlong with the council of the university until a convincing reason for the action was given.
Various speakers lambasted the leadership of the council, saying that it should allow standard to evolve in the institution rather than forcing on the academic unacceptable and oppressive rules.
The zone also called on the university council to give peace a chance and follow due process in what ever it is doing in the university. The zone agreed to table the case before the national body for proper action if the council and the government of Ogun State fails to act very fast on the issue. Visit champion.com.ng for more stories
A stitch in time saves nine.
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