ASUU strike will end soon —AAUA VC · Says no ban on SSANU

THE vice chancellor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, Professor Igbekele Ajibefun, said on Tuesday that the ongoing industrial action by the university’s branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will soon end.

He said: “Our academic calendar has been very smooth until recently when the university began to face some challenges in terms of payment of salaries, which is not unconnected with the economic recession in the country.

“But very soon, all the issues will be resolved. We are in a progressive talk with the leadership of ASUU. Efforts are in the top gear to ensure that ASUU members go back to class. Very soon, our students will be asked to resume to campus.”

Contrary to speculations making the rounds that the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities at AAUA has been proscribed, following a protest by some members of the association, which led to the disengagement of some of its executives in 2012, Professor Ajibefun said SSANU was never banned in the university.

He made this clarification while responding to a question on the outcome of the meeting he held with some SSANU members recently.

“There is no record whatsoever that says SSANU has been banned. The management is not against its resuscitation. Everybody has the right to freedom of association, and such a right has not been taken away from SSANU,” he said.