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Aloysius Attah, Onitsha
The ongoing national strike by university lecturers in Nigeria has split the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Anambra State into two camps with one majority camp accusing the Chairperson, Prof. Okey Aniebo of playing double standards for pecuniary interests.
While the ASUU-COOU led by Aniebo has insisted that they would continue with the ongoing national strike in solidarity with ASUU National and also pressing for several demands peculiar to the Ojukwu varsity, majority of the lecturers in the university numbering more than 400 have pulled out of the strike, resumed lectures and also passed a vote of confidence on the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Greg Nwakoby. The management-friendly ASUU members who held a meeting at the Political Science Department Hall in a statement signed by their Chairman, Prof. Osita Chiaghanam and Secretary, Dr. Innocent Ngangah, said Ojukwu varsity as a state university has its own peculiarities and challenges but despite such, the university has continued to excel across many fronts because of its dedicated staff, disciplined student population and the acumen of the impactful management team.
Accusing Aniebo of double standards, they disclosed that while preaching ASUU strike guidelines, he as acting Dean, Faculty of Agriculture has continued to partake in university ceremonies, preside over committee meetings of both departmental and faculty levels, conduct farm demonstrations and claim monthly ‘imprest’.
Reacting to the claims, Aniebo and his loyalists while addressing journalists in Awka yesterday in a hotel premises said that he has been marked for punishment maintaining that all the issues raised by the union as problems facing its members in the university are verifiable and yet to be addressed.
