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From: Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Academic activities were paralysed, on Wednesday, as lecturers at Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, (MAPOLY) Abeokuta, shut the entrance gate of the institution to protest the directive of the erstwhile Executive Secretary of the National Universities Committee, (NUC) and the chairman of transition committee of the Polytechnic into Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology (MAUSTECH), Prof. Peter Okebukola, that they should resign their appointments and re-apply.
Okebukola was reported to have issued the directive to over 250 existing academic staff of the Polytechnic to resign and re-apply to the management of the proposed University.
The lecturers, who equally alleged that Okebukola, at a meeting with the MAPOLY ASUP executive members, had referred to the Polytechnic lecturers as ‘road side teachers’ unfit to teach at MAUSTECH, pronounced him a persona non grata and dared him to step into the institution.
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, (ASUP) MAPOLY branch, after its congress, on Tuesday, had declared it would resist any move not to consider them in the arrangement for the university.
Okebukola, however, denied the allegation same day explaining the committee had not issued any document or instruction to
anybody on the issues being raised by the Union.
But the lecturers converged on the school yesterday as early 7a.m, shut the double gates into the school and set up bonfires on the roads leading to the school gate.
They also carried placards with inscriptions such as “Okebukola must go” and “MAUSTECH must stay”, and alleged the Committee wanted to deprive them from what they had laboured for.
Scores of students and other staff of the institution were seen stranded, while vehicles were turned back by the protesting lecturers.
Speaking with our correspondent, the chairman, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, MAPOLY chapter, Messrs Kola Abiola, said the the protest became necessary to register the union’s grievances with Okebukola led transition committee.
He, however, passed vote of no confidence in Prof. Okebukola-led technical team.
Abiola vowed that the school would remain under lock and key until a roundtable discussion is held between the union and the technical committee, to ascertain the future of over 250 lecturers of the school.
Also speaking, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUP in charge of South West, Olawale Adetunji, said the action of the lecturers had the backing of the national body of the Union.
According to him, the protest became inevitable since the technical committee and government were not ready to listen to the plight of the stakeholders that had built the institution over the years.
“The committee and government have refused to give recognition to the plight of major stakeholders and our interest is not their interest. We say no to slave trading in the land of the black”. He stated.
