The lingering industrial crisis that rocked Kogi State University (KSU), Anyigba more than a year ago, may still endure as the State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello has rebuffed peace efforts made by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and other concerned bodies on the issue.
This is contained in a statement by ASUU at the end of its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting which held in Calabar on August 4th-5th.
The statement is signed by Biodun Ogunyemi its National President.
ASUU decried what it termed ‘hazy political environment foisted on the people of Nigeria by the ruling class and the total disconnect between the government and Nigerian people’ and called for an urgent redress.
In its review of events at KSU, Ogunyemi regrets “continual and recalcitrant proscription of ASUU in KSU and persecution of our members whose appointments were unjustly terminated over their protest against selective payments as well as non-payment of emoluments.”
Once rated on the frontline among state and private universities in the country, by the Nigerian Universities Commission, NUC, the glory may have departed from the institution, as the umbrella union gave a damning report on its academic health.
“In a desperate move to cover its tracks, the University administration has recruited Assistant Lecturers and Graduate Assistants to handle academic and administrative functions of Professors, Senior Lecturers and PhD holders. Consequently, the academic health of the University has gone down beyond imaginable levels.”
ASUU blame Governor Bello who is the university’s Visitor for the state of affairs.
“ASUU has written to request an audience with the Visitor. The Minister of Labour and Employment as well as the NLC President has also written to the Visitor on the same issues. Unfortunately, the Visitor has rebuffed all these interventions. ASUU will continue to struggle against the injustices visited on its members in Kogi State University, Anyigba, until justice is done and the University is restored to a normally functioning institution.
“There is a need to bring to an end the rule of the unproductive and corrupt ruling class in Nigeria and to enthrone a popular, democratic government. The current crises within Nigeria’s ruling class parties vindicates Nigerians who have argued that the people of Nigeria need their own party to protect and advance the interests of the people of Nigeria – majority of whom are poor. As the search for this alternative continues, we call on all progressive forces in the country – labour, farmers, artisans, journalists and credible civil society groups – to insist on the implementation of the provisions of Chapter II of the Nigerian Constitution as a minimum for redirect our nation from the current drift.”
