NEWS DIGEST – In a tell it all chat with The News Digest, the national President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Mr Biodun Ogunyemi has spoken extensively about the crisis rocking Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) and Nigeria Education as a whole. The University don said the issue affecting Ladoke Akintola University of Technology is not just limited to the school alone but most Nigerian states. He described what is happening as a political game been played by both Oyo and Osun state government while hitting at Nigerian governors for paying lip service to education in the Country. “The issue rocking Ladoke Akintola University of Technology is not limited to the University alone,it is a political game that has continued to engulf Nigeria education. The governors when they need our votes will promise to invest in education but they never fulfill their promises, most of them refuse to drop any penny to support the schools. “Take Ladoke Akintola University of Technology for instance, the Oyo state government went on to establish a technical University and also Osun state government created Osun state University. Let me even tell you that the technical University Oyo state government created they have been forcing local governments to support students because they have made it beyond reach of masses. “What the state government want is a University that will be in their name and be their glory, the truth is Ladoke Akintola University of Nigeria should be the luckiest with two states owning it but both governors have refused to be responsible, what can a Technical University in Oyo state do that LAUTECH cannot do” he quipped. On the solution to the crisis rocking Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, he said ceding the University to a state is the way forward. “There was a time that the Federal government through the National Universities commission tried to intervene by asking that the University should be owned by one state , the commission visited the University and was ready to go on but the owner states refused the gesture despite their shortcomings, it is only when we have one state responsible that we can talk of progress.” “They set up an international audit team but failed to release the report, they have kept telling people that lecturers are corrupt but no one is seeing the report, let them tell Oyo and Osun state citizens that they want LAUTECH to die a Natural death” he said. He lamented that staffs of the school have been working for several months without salary or any pay. “Most of the workers in LAUTECH have been working without salaries, some for over ten months and the issue is even if Ajimobi does not have his children in the Country, this politicians only pay lip service to Education, they do not really mean well, they have their kids out of the country or if their kids are in Nigeria, they send them to Private schools”. On the plan of the Union to continue to fight poor funding in the tertiary institutions, the ASUU President said: “The Minister of Education promised us a meeting, if they fail to call the meeting, we will take our decisions” he said. Ladoke Akintola University of Technology lecturers have been protesting lack of proper funding and welfare.
https://newsdigest.ng/news/2018/08/23/ASUU-president-reveals/