ASUU flays Ajimobi over plan to stop subventions to tertiary institutions

THE Ibadan Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described the decision by the Oyo State government to stop subventions to its tertiary institutions as a betrayal of the people of the state.

Ibadan zone of ASUU comprises University of Ibadan; Ladoke Akintola University, Ogbomoso; University of Ilorin, Kwara State University, Malete (both in Kwara State), and the Osun State University, Osogbo.

In a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune in Ibadan, on Thursday, by the Zonal Coordinator of the union, Dr Ade Adejumo, the union said the policy might compel those institutions to impose higher fees on students in their desperation to survive.

“Our union is opposed to such surreptitious fee increase as it has the potential to take education beyond the reach of brilliant but poor Nigerian children,” it stated.

It advised Governor Abiola Ajimobi to drop the idea of outright stoppage or drastic reduction in subventions, as it portends danger to the development of the educational fortunes of the state.

“It is a betrayal of the electorates whose aspiration of giving their children quality education stands to be frustrated,” Adejumo said.

He then called on men and women of goodwill in the state to prevail on the governor to “retreat from this path to the final destruction of educational legacy of Oyo State.”

“If this (policy) is not challenged, other governors in other parts of the country will start borrowing this bad leaf from Oyo State.”

Meanwhile, the Office of the Attorney-General of Oyo State has taken strong exception to a publication in the Nigerian Tribune of Thursday, September 29, 2016, in which the state’s Attorney-General, Mr Oluseun Abimbola, was reported to have denied a Supreme Court judgment against the takeover of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, by the Oyo State government.

In the publication, a spokesperson to the Chairman, Osun State House of Assembly Committee on Education, Honourable Folorunso Bamisayemi, was credited with remarks “accusing some elements within Oyo State government of allegedly encouraging criminality and also condemned the denial by the Oyo State Attorney-General of an existing court verdict against the takeover bid.”

But a letter signed by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, Prince A. W. Gbadegesin, said that at no time did the attorney-general make such statement in any quarter, either in Oyo State or elsewhere.

It also viewed the reference to officials of the state government, and particularly the attorney-general, as “some elements” as demeaning and disrespectful of their offices.”

In another development, the National Financial Secretary of the LAUTECH Alumni Association, Mr Babalola O. J., has also faulted a report in the Nigerian Tribune in which he was said to have co-signed a document with the National Financial President of the association, Mr Jide Bewaji.

Babalola maintained that he could not have co-signed the document, because his duties, according to the constitution of the association, do not include secretariat work.

The Chairman of the LAUTECH ASUU, Dr Biodun Olaniran, also said he was misrepresented as the union president.