The Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti(FUOYE) Professor Kayode Soremekun has revealed that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) needed to be reformed for it to have meaningful contributions to the nation’s education sector.
The Institution’s Deputy Director, Corporate Services, Mr Adeyinka Ademuyiwa in a statement made available to TribuneOnline on Thursday quoted the VC to have stated this during a visit of the national leadership of the union to the university.
The delegation led by ASUU National Vice President, Comrade V.E Osodeke was in the school over the suspension of its former FUOYE Branch Chairman, Comrade Gabriel Omonijo.
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Prof. Soremekun who recalled that the union was a strong factor in Nigeria project regretted that ASUU leadership had lost touch of its members across the country.
According to him, “Nigeria needs ASUU, ASUU needs Nigeria, but ASUU must reform itself. In time past, ASUU Chieftains have a strong moral pedigree and are always truly representatives of their Congresses. You dare not touch them. However, the reverse is the case now. Anyone who is a chieftain can now be sacked.
“The strength of ASUU lies in its Congresses. Today ASUU leaders are disconnected from the people they claim to lead, and this is very unfortunate.”
On the request of the delegation for the reinstatement of Omonijo, the VC said, “When you lack integrity, you cannot lead. People rely on the moral energy of ASUU built over the years to commit all sorts of atrocities. They keep drawing on that goodwill till nothing is left of it. This is our problem and we must fix it.”
He promised to take their request to the Chairman of Council and Pro-Chancellor, Professor Tunde Samuel for necessary considerations, saying, “Only Council can make a pronouncement on these cases now.”
Earlier, Osodeke had solicited the support of management in resolving union crisis at the university, which has led to the formation of Congress of University Academics (CONUA) from ASUU.
“We have three academic unions in this university. We have ASUU led by Dr Adubiaro, we have C-ASUU, where C stands for ‘Concerned’, and then we have Congress of University Academic (CONUA). All these are ASUU breakaways and it’s not good”, he said.
“We have interacted with our Executive at FUOYE, we have spoken to C-ASUU, we want to resolve all problems That is why we are here. We have listened to our suspended members and we are here to listen to your side as management.”
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