ASUU, OAU management disagree on strike

The crisis rocking Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, over the disbursement of Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) is yet to abate as members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the institution’s management disagreed over strike action called by ASUU.
 
While ASUU’s National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, insisted that members are on indefinite and total strike over managements’s failure to follow laid down template for the disbursement of EAA, the university urged parents and members of the public to disregard any notice of strike, saying academic activities is ongoing in the institution. Osodeke had blamed the vice chancellor, Prof Eyitope Ogunbodede for the strike embarked upon by the OAU branch of the union.
     
He said the industrial action declared as a result of unpaid EAA was caused by the vice chancellor and not the Federal Government.

Osodeke said: “CONUA was not only an illegal trade union, the money was given to OAU in the name of ASUU and not CONUA, hence the body cannot dictate how it should be shared.
 
But the university authorities in its reaction said academic activities is ongoing in the institution. The university’s spokesman, Mr Biodun Olanrewaju, in an interview with The Guardian, said there are two academic unions in the institution, ASUU and CONUA, and it is only ASUU that has called its members out on strike.

“In view of this, parents, guardians, alumni and friends of the university are assured of uninterrupted academic calendar, as our students are advised to go about their normal academic activities because there is no cause for concern or alarm.”