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LASU Lecturers Ready To Resume —ASUU
December 02, 2009 14:11 (4 hours ago), 191 views
By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Following the ultimatum given to staff of the Lagos State University (LASU) to resume work, latest Friday, by the state governor, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, the Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution, Mr. Kabir Akinyemi, says the lecturers are ready to work.

Mr. Akinyemi who disclosed this to P.M.NEWS this morning said lecturers of the school were ready to work and that they had always been on campus.

“We are ready to work if the right environment is provided. We have been on ground since the National ASUU called off the nationwide strike and we are still on ground.

“It is the Vice Chancellor (VC) that had not been in the school since July. Let him come. He has been accused of so many things,” he said.

Akinyemi accused the VC, Professor Lateef Hussein, of going about telling everybody that LASU lecturers were indisciplined and perpetrating fraudulent activities “and that our certificate should not be accepted.”

He commended the state House of Assembly for wading into the crisis.

P.M.NEWS also gathered that members of the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) of the institution had agreed to resume work. Governor Fashola had yesterday ordered all staff of LASU to go back to work, latest Friday or be sanctioned.

The governor posited that failure to comply with his ultimatum would be duly treated as a breach of employment contract and a contravention of applicable statute with all the prescribed legal consequences.

Fashola’s position was conveyed to newsmen by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele.

According to Bamidele, the state government can no longer sit back and allow the strike to continue at the detriment of the students.

“Taking cognizance of the various issues raised by all parties, the position of this government is that the situation should not have degenerated to the withdrawal of services by both academic and non academic staff of the institution in the name of an industrial action.

“We believe that this action is not in conformity with the contract of employment and statutory regulations guiding the conduct of trade unions and the resolution of trade dispute in Nigeria,” he stated.

According to him, “it is indeed inimical to the interest of the students and it interferes with obligation of government to guarantee uninterrupted activities on campus.”