STILL ON ASUU STRIKE: AAUA VC Pleads with ASUU to Call off Strike Says AAUA May Pull Out if… The Vice Chancellor, Adekunle Ajasin University, Prof. Femi Mimiko, has appealed to Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to call off the on- going three-month old strike action embarked upon in the interest of the students and the nation. Prof. Mimiko said in the event national ASUU fails to have a rethink, Adekunle Ajasin University would begin the process of pulling out of the on-going strike. Prof. Mimiko gave the hint on Wednesday last week while speaking with newsmen after the Opening Ceremony of this year’s World Pharmacists Day Celebrations at Akure. He said, “As you have noted, we manage to run the University for the past four years without a broken calendar. We were just continuing with that. We were going to consolidating that culture, when the strike action came up. And that is why for us, we are particularly concerned. We are hoping that ASUU will do the needful to call off the strike as quickly as possible. We have looked at the whole scenario and we have come to the conclusion that it is in our strategic interest as a State University to begin to find a way to bring our students back. So we are hoping that the strike will be called off before the end of the month. Otherwise, we may begin to take some steps that will enable us invite our students back in no time. “We have a blue print on the table that we are looking at. And the important thing is that we are not going to allow our students to remain home ad-infinitum. We have decided that if the strike is not over in a few days, we will begin the process.” On what would be done if the lecturers refuse to heed the resumption call, the VC said, “We are consulting. We have a peculiar situation because we are a state University. Lecturers in my University are not in the employment of the Federal Government. We don’t have any subsisting dispute with our workers on campus. There is no subsisting issue of disagreement. So, technically, they shouldn’t have been on strike in the first instance but we are consulting. We are talking to the members and we are hoping that all of us will be able to drive in the same direction. Like I said, that is what is in our strategic interest as a state University that is funded by the state and not by the Federal Government.” Prof. Mimiko had also, Penultimate week, made the same plea at the Public Lecture held in the Obafemi Awolowo Hall of the University. The Lecture was delivered by literary icon and visiting lecturer to AAUA, Prof. Kole Omotoso, who spoke on “Theatre and The Human Conditions”. The Vice Chancellor had appealed to ASUU to consider opening new fronts of its on-going impasse with the Federal Government rather than shutting down the nation’s varsity system completely. Prof. Mimiko said, “I am using this opportunity to appeal to our colleagues in academics that are on strike to reconsider our position and find a way to resume in the interest of our students and higher education in Nigeria. We must find a way to bring this crisis to an end. “The University system is aching. It has become very difficult for us to be reckoned with in the comity of Universities across the world. Let us find a way to reach a consensus with government, while going on with negotiations.” He added, “I want to believe that we have made a very profound point, drawing attention to the gaps that exist. But I believe that what is at stake is so fundamental that we must find a way to convince ourselves and persuade each other to bring this to an end. That does not suggest a termination of the struggle as it were. It only suggests that we recognize the very damaging implication of having to shut down the entire University system for about three months.” Culled from: AAUA Weekly Highlight.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 19:51:08 +0000
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