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From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities (COPSUN) has described the statement of Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) president, Emmanuel Osodeke, that some universities are quacks as ‘unconscionable’ saying membership of a union is voluntary.
A statement made available to our correspondent in Osogbo by the secretary of COPSUN, Marcus Awobifa, on Monday, described Osodeke’s statement as “tendentious, ill-conceived and flagrantly unconscionable.”
Noting that Pro-Chancellors of State Universities and members of the Councils are distinguished and accomplished eminent persons who had served and still serving the Nation in many capacities, COPSUN said “it is therefore insulting, contemptuous and unbecoming for the President of ASUU to state that these esteemed individuals are presiding over quack and inconsequential Universities.
“It beggars belief that the President of ASUU does not realize that his loquacious vituperation and obsolete Stalinist, centralized, unpopular approach to the issue of funding of tertiary education in a modern globalized world is archaic, antiquated and impracticable anywhere in the world.
“COPSUN believes that this is an auspicious time for ASUU to creatively work with all stakeholders to tinker out a compromise that will bring back to the campuses the young men and women who have been insensitively thrown out of the universities for the last six months.
“COPSUN wishes to appeal to the President of ASUU to realise that the membership of ASUU is voluntary. Therefore, it is not his ill-informed approach and denigration of state universities that will lead to fashioning out creative approaches to avoid existential extinction that will solve the myriad of problems confronting the University system in Nigeria.
“The very unfortunate ill-digested view of the President of ASUU has vindicated the position of this Committee on the following issues:
“The negative professionalisation of offices of the Unions that operate in our Universities and the unserious belief among many members of the Unions that the Unions are superior to the Councils of the Universities that are their employers.
“The need for immediate democratisation of the membership of unions in the universities to the extent of the freedom of any individual to belong to a union with options of not belonging,” the statement added.
