The Ladoke Akintola University Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday said it would forge ahead with its strike and warned its members not to break off.
The union in a statement jointly signed by the Chairman and Secretary, Professors Biodun Olaniran and Toyin Abegunrin after their Congress, reacted to an alleged threat by Gov. Seyi Makinde to stop payment of subvention until lecturers returned to the classroom.
It stated that any branch that broke the strike would lose out on the benefits of the struggle, including infrastructure development.
ASUU said members had resolved to forge ahead with the strike and pursue it to a logical conclusion, which “is imminent”.
The union said the government should not see students as a target of the strike but as beneficiaries of the ASUU strike as the intervention of most state governments in terms of subvention had been used as part-payment of salaries.
According to the statement, the Union is shocked to hear from the Commissioner of Education, Mr. Rahman Abdu-Raheem, that the state had been paying LAUTECH 100 percent subvention when the University administration revealed to the Union that only 55 percent subvention came from the government.
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It said the balance of 45 percent had been sought by the university through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
The ASUU leaders stated that the commissioner’s claim on subvention had created further distrust between the management and the unions as to who was telling the truth.
According to LAUTECH ASUU, the responsibilities of capital projects had been totally abdicated and surrendered to TETFUND and NEEDS to assess projects of ASUU’s struggles.
They further noted that lecturers were very sensitive to the plight of the students but that the government should thank the union for the struggle which had helped in training its members in human capacity Development through TETFUND grants.
