ASUU Vows To Resist Attempts To Recall Students To Campus

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) advised parents to keep their children at home, warning that members were ready to resist the management’s plans to recall students to campus despite the ongoing strike.

This advise followed a statement by the Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Olufemi Mimiko, who said he would reopen the institution if ASUU failed to call off its strike. 

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," he said.

The Chairman of ASUU AAUA, Dr. Busayo Mekusi, however, called the VC’s plan “an attempt to plunge the institution into an unending crisis.”

Mekusi told journalists in Akure on Thursday that the strike would continue and AAUA branch was committed to what he called “the revamping of public universities in the country.”

“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 stated.

Mekusi debunked the claims that the university had no subsisting agreement with the FG, saying that the ongoing struggle had given AAUA access to N1.05bn from the FG allocation.

He recalled that the state universities were duly represented during the negotiation and signing of 2009 agreement with the FG, and this account for why AAUA has been benefitting from the proceeds of ASUU struggle.

Meanwhile, 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.

Source: Legit.ng