Follow Us on Google
From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ladoke Akintola University chapter, yesterday urged the two owner states of the institution to use the new tranche of Paris Club loan refunds from the Federal Government to settle outstanding salaries and pensions of the university’s staff.
ASUU Chairman, Dr. Biodun Olaniran and Secretary, Dr, Toyin Abegunrin, in a statement in Ibadan, appealed to governors Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State and his Osun State counterpart, Rauf Aregbesola, to resolve the funding issues that had paralysed academic activities in the institution in the past 13 months.
The statement read in part: “Our attention has been drawn to the release of another tranche of Paris Club refund by the Federal Government to the states. This is done with an express advice to state governments to use the fund for settlement of indebtedness to workers and pensioners.
“It is in this connection that our union uses this medium to appeal to the governors of Oyo and Osun states to use the opportunity of this financial relief to solve the perennial funding problems that has brought LAUTECH to its knees. The governors are called upon to overlook whatever ‘imagined sins’ that must have been committed by some staff members to warrant this horrendous suffering unleashed on the system. They should use the milk of human kindness in them to pity the plight of the over 30,000 students, who are wasting away the good part of their youthful energies at home.
“The university is a public institution ministering to the educational needs of the mass of poor citizens of the states. The governors are also reminded that they are holding those offices by the grace of the people to whom those positions rightly belong.
“Using resources at the disposal of the state to service public interests like funding the university properly is part of the mandate and pact signed with the people.”
