THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Akure chapter, has called on the two owner states of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, to wake up to their responsibilities and improve on the funding of the institution.
The ASUU in the zone frowned on the insensitivity of the two state governments towards the infrastructural decay and response to the welfare of the workers of the university.
Speaking during a press conference in the Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), the Zonal Coordinator of the union, Dr Alex Odiyi, said the governing council of the institution and the state governments had failed to keep to their own side of the agreement they freely entered into.
Odiyi stated that: “This is evidenced by continuous infrastructural decay, unpaid salary arrears of ten months, irregular and dwindling payment of monthly salaries since May 2018 and non-payment of four years promotion arrears.”
According to him, there were attempts to end the problems facing the institution through the constitution of a visitation panel, set up to recommend lasting solutions to resolve the recurrent funding crisis of the school.
He, however, said instead of the state governments to implement the report, they kept on hammering on the auditing of the accounts of the University by KPMG.
In the same vein, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri chapter, has called on the Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, members of the public and well-meaning Nigerians to take the training and education of Nigerian children more seriously by adequately funding (LAUTECH) and addressing all the welfare issues of all stakeholders in the University, which the Union says if urgent steps are not taken it may truncate academic programmes in the institution.
The zonal coordinator of the chapter, Comrade Uzo Onyebinama, who made the call at a press conference held by the union in Awka, the Anambra state capital, said the festering case of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Ogbomosho (LAUTECH) jointly owned by Osun and Oyo States, was particularly pathetic and very worrisome.
According to him, LAUTECH Ogbomosho has continued to have problems of poor funding since 2013 due to failure by owner state governments of Oyo and Osun, to take responsibility of funding the University for the interest of poor students.
