UNIVERSITY of Ilorin chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday told the union’s national executive council to stop griping over the appointment of Professor Ishaq Oloyede as the new registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB).
It also advised the apex body of the union to desist from further foisting its unpopular leadership on members if it wants to improve students’ academic excellence and members’ welfare.
“What the ASUU NEC is lamenting is its serial failure to foist unpopular leadership on the branch of UNILORIN,” it said, adding that “majority of our members had insisted (and are still insisting) that ASUU NEC will continue to fail woefully and sulk until it embraces the elementary democratic principles in the election of leaders.
“We advise the executive of the union to retrace its (steps) back to the dreams of our founding fathers – Mahmud Tukur, the late Festus Iyayi and Attahiru Jega – and embrace democratic norms and meritocracy.”
It said it considers the recent negative observation by ASUU-NEC, “as published in some sections of the media, on Professor Oloyede’s well-deserved appointment as baseless, reckless and ill-conceived.”
“It is yet another evidence of the meddlesomeness of a union (leadership) that has lost track of the laid down objectives of its cherished founding fathers. Otherwise, what kind of reasoning will produce such an outburst over a well and widely acknowledged appointment?,” it asked.
The union stressed further that the purging of UNILORIN of anarchy, academic idiocy and laziness, which the ASUU NEC is grieving over, has yielded positive result in terms of academic productivity, integrity and stable calendar in UNILORIN.
“These have been widely acclaimed and appreciated by Nigerians and non-Nigerians. This feat has become the envy and goal of many higher institutions in Nigeria. Professor Isiaq Oloyede’s achievements and antecedents in other areas are iconic, intimidating, as well as outstanding”.
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