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Tag: LAUTECH crisis

  • Don proffers solution to LAUTECH crisis

    Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) pioneer Deputy Vice-Chancellor Prof Isaac Adebayo Adeyemi has advocated the re-introduction of tripartite meeting involving the Vice-Chancellor and the education commissioners of Osun and Oyo States to resolve the university’s crisis.

    The professor of food science and engineering made the call while delivering LAUTECH’s second valedictory lecture at the main campus in Ogbomoso yesterday.

    The university’s Public and Alumni Relations Unit Head, Lekan Fadeyi, in a statement, said Adeyemi observed that the meeting would sustain mutual confidence between the owner-states.

    The retiring don was of the view that the avenue could be used to iron out thorny issues, with members reporting to their principals as a way of entrenching unity of purpose.

    He said: “LAUTECH may have had its fair share of crisis, but the University has maintained its leadership among its peers. If you ask me, the future is brighter and I have strong hope and belief that we shall overcome.”

    Adeyemi, who is the immediate past Bells University of Technology, Otta, Ogun State Vice-Chancellor and the Polytechnic Ibadan Governing Council Chairman observed the need for unbroken synergy between government, parents, lecturers, non-teaching staff and students in promoting greater understanding of any institution’s vision and mission.

    LAUTECH Vice-Chancellor Prof Adeniyi Gbadegesin thanked the retiring don for his immeasurable contributions to LAUTECH, assuring him that posterity was on his side whenever the institution’s history is written.

     

  • ASUU seeks Tinubu’s, others’ intervention in LAUTECH crisis

    ASUU seeks Tinubu’s, others’ intervention in LAUTECH crisis

    •Oyo, Osun assemblies to meet Friday

    The Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso branch of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) yesterday urged the university’s Pro-Chancellor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the vice chancellor and members of Governing Board to resolve the crisis rocking the institution.

    The union sought the intervention of the National Leader of the All Progressives Party (APC) in the university.

    It said the frontline politician has the clout end the lingering crisis.

    LAUTECH’s ASUU Chairman, Dr. Abiodun Olaniran, spoke in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, at the Southwest Group of Online Publishers media chat.

    He said: “We are not comfortable with Asiwaju Tinubu’s silence on the matter. He has a significant role to play. We want him to quickly intervene and bring an end to the lingering crisis.”

    Olaniran said the governing council and management of the university had not said anything on the face-off.

    The union leader, who was accompanied by ASUU Secretary at the university, Dr Toyi Abegunrin, said this was suspicious.

    He said the university’s internally generated revenue (IGR) was not enough to sustain the institution.

    Olaniran said: “As we speak, LAUTECH can no longer pay for utility services. The institution has been in darkness for some weeks because it owes the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) and others.”

    The union leader urged stakeholders to prevail on the owner-states to implement the recommendations of Wole Olanipekun-led committee’s report.

    According to him, part of the report advocates immediate payment of N1.7 billion for the institution by September and stretch other payments so that the institution can reopen.

    Olaniran noted that ASUU was not against forensic auditing of the university’s books, as being peddled in some quarters.

    He added: “ASUU is known for probity and accountability. We support the exercise, but what we are saying is that it must be done according to the edicts of the university.”

    Also, the Oyo State House of Assembly and its Osun State counterpart have agreed to meet and resolve the crisis at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) in Ogbomoso.

    A source, who spoke in confidence, told The Nation that the two assemblies have agreed to meet at the Oyo State House of Assembly in Ibadan on Friday.

     

     

     

     

  • LAUTECH crisis: Visitation panel submits report, urges owner states to provide subvention

    LAUTECH crisis: Visitation panel submits report, urges owner states to provide subvention

    THERE is need for subvention and trust fund to efficiently run the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, the institution’s visitation panel has said.

    The visitation panel was inaugurated on Friday, Octobr 28, 2016 by the governors ýof Oyo and Osun states with the mandate to consider and explore avenues by which the institution could be rescued from the plethora of problems plaguing it.

    Chairman of the visitation panel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) presented the report to the Oyo State Governor, Sen Abiola Ajimobi at the executive council chamber of the governor’s office, Ibadan.

    Part of the short-term recommendation of the panel was for the two owner states to provide subvention for efficient running of the institution, while working on modalities for the establishment of a trust fund for proper management of the institution.

    In his remarks, Governor Ajimobi commended the panel for the depth analysis and coverage of the report, adding that the report does not matter as much as its implementation.

    Ajimobi expressed concern over the quality of output from the education sector in recent times particularly poor moral standard.

    “Reality on ground requires we look at different ways of doing things. We need to set up a joint committee to study the report and super impose a template in-line with current reality. We need to look at how can public schools be self-sustaining.

    Also, his counterpart from Osun State, Governor Rauf Aregbesola said the two states regretted any inconveniences the present challenges has brought to the students.

    He appealed to the management and staff members of LAUTECH to understand the pernicious revenue that could not even pay the salaries of the mainstream workers in the state.

    “We must be innovate and think out of the box for the university to work. I want to appeal to all the staff unions to join hands with government to ýreposition the institution by calling off their strike,” Aregbesola said.

  • Lecturers blame governors for LAUTECH crisis

    Lecturers blame governors for LAUTECH crisis

    •SSANU urges Ooni, Alaafin to intervene

    THE Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) yesterday blamed Oyo and Osun governors for the ownership crisis in the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.

    The union urged the Ooni of Ife, Alaafin of Oyo and other traditional rulers in the two states to join  the governors in resolving the crisis.

    SSANU expressed concern about the crisis, which is threatening the life and property of workers in the institution.

    The union said it was unfortunate a university established years ago would degenerate into a crisis of statism.

    SSANU’s National President Samson Ugwoke said in a statement that the governors and traditional rulers from the two states should intervene in the crisis and resolve it in the interest of workers and students.

    In the statement by the association’s National Public Relations Officer (NPRO) Abdussobur Olayiwola Salaam in Abuja, Ugwoke said it was unfortunate the governors allowed the issue to degenerate.

    He noted that they would not have allowed it to degenerate to the point where  security of workers, students and the environment in which they operate was no longer guaranteed.

    Ugboke added that ethnicity or statism was not expected to be an issue in a citadel of learning because the quality of a university is measured by the number of foreign and international workers and students.

    The statement said: “The union had tarried a while before making any public statement or comment on the issue, in the simple confidence that the spirit of Yoruba unity and solidarity would have prevailed and sorted out the impasse.

    “Unfortunately, our expectations have been dashed and we are now forced to intervene in this issue in the hope that our voice is heard and sanity is restored to the university.

    “The concept of the ‘university’ is coined from the word – universal. Thus, a university, in its real and pristine sense, is a universal or international community with no national or ethnic borders. The quality of a university in this day and age is measured by the number of foreign and international staff and students it is able to attract.

    “The fact that it was established and is being funded by a particular body or government (either state or federal), does not make the university a property of its financiers. It is in the concept of the “university”, that once a university is founded, it becomes a universal, global or international property. Thus, ethnicity has no place in the scheme of things in the university…

    “SSANU decries this unfortunate development, which apart from jeopardising the lives of our members has put the university in a state of disrepute. We, therefore, call on governments of both states to initiate reconciliatory processes to resolve the problems.

    “We urge traditional rulers and eminent royal fathers from both states to intervene in the crisis and resolve it in the interest of staff and students…”

     

  • LAUTECH crisis: ASUU, ARG condemn attack by hoodlums

    LAUTECH crisis: ASUU, ARG condemn attack by hoodlums

    THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ibadan Zone and the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) have condemned the attack carried out by hoodlums on workers of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Ogbomoso on Tuesday.

    A statement yesterday in Ibadan by the ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Ade Adejumo, warned politicians not to politicise the university’s crisis.

    It urged the police to ensure the perpetrators were arrested and prosecuted.

    The union advised members to resist politicians, who  play ethnic politics with people’s lives.

    It warned parents to ignore purported plans to bring students back to school while academic workers were on strike.

    Statement urged parents not to  risk the lives of their children, knowing well that ASUU is on strike.

    According to the ASUU chief, the crisis was foisted on the institution by “chronic under-funding for which both Oyo and Osun governments are equally responsible”.

    The ARG, in a statement by its spokesman, Kunle Famoriyo, called for caution in  the crisis at LAUTECH.

    ARG expressed worry about the reported violent attack on officials of the university.

    “We believe such barbaric and insensate act has no root in our society, and should not be allowed. We, therefore, call for calm and understanding among  stakeholders of the university.

     ”The significant financial challenges facing LAUTECH does not and must not translate to enmity between indigenes of Oyo and Osun  states as this is against the spirit of peace and unity that many of our leaders are labouring to promote.”

      “ARG calls on governors of the two states, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, to come to a roundtable and resolve agitation in the interest of the larger community the university serves.

    “ARG calls on the traditional leadership of Ogbomoso kingdom, the revered stool of Oba Oba Jimoh Oladunni Oyewumi, Soun Ajagungbade III, to assist in nipping the crisis in the bud,” the statement said.