EKSU’s resumption order is rejected by ASUU, and UNIOSUN takes on the union

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

An order from the institution’s management to resume academic activity has been denied by the Academic Staff Union of Universities at Ekiti State University in Ado Ekiti.

However, Dr. Kayode Arogundade, the union’s chairperson, who announced this on Friday, said the institution’s registrar, Ife Oluwole, was free to reopen the university, which he shuttered as a result of the industrial action.

EKSU-ASUU was not included in the school’s resumption order, according to Arogundade, who was responding to the registrar’s announcement on Wednesday ordering the screening, registration, and orientation programs for new students for the 2021/2022 session to resume on Monday.

As far as we are concerned, we are still on strike, he declared. Our congress recently came to a close. The Federal Government’s position does not set well with us. Our national body is aware of the resolutions we adopted during the congress.

“Students were not sent home. The students were sent home by the registrar. The student who sent them home has the authority to invite them back. He has therefore requested that the students he sent home return. I doubt that anyone overheard me say that my members should return.

ASUU President Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke was criticized by the university’s administration for calling some state universities “quack universities” in a statement released on Friday by the head of the directorate of information, Bode Olofinmuagun, titled “EKSU not a quack university: ASUU president’s statement, reckless.” The statement called the president’s remarks “unfortunate, reckless, and unwarranted.”

According to Olofinmuagun, who claimed that almost all EKSU academic programs were accredited by the National Universities Commission and pertinent professional regulatory bodies, the university is currently ranked second among state universities and among the top 200 universities in Nigeria in the most recent Webometric rankings.

Therefore, classifying EKSU as one of the quackery and unimportant universities is evidence that the ASUU president is probably ignorant and/or lacking in original thought. This outrageous blather coming from Osodeke is completely unacceptable and abhorrent.

The university continued, “The management calls on Professor Osodeke to tread the road of honour by withdrawing the inflammatory comment and tendering an unreserved apologies without further delay.”

In a similar vein, while denouncing ASUU’s comment, Osun State University Vice Chancellor Prof. Clement Adebooye urged the union’s president to watch what he says.

Adeboye stated, “We take objection to the characterization of UNIOSUN as a quack school provided by Osodeke. In its 14 years of existence, this university has a reputation for doing things that other universities have not. There are 481 full-time academic employees at this university, and 387 of them have PhDs. Osodeke shouldn’t be hasty with his remarks; after all, he is only a Nigerian. He shouldn’t discuss things he doesn’t understand. He has not spoken with facts, as a good professor would. He must pursue education.