OOU lecturers embark on indefinite strike

Lecturers of the Ogun State owned Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye yesterday embarked on an indefinite strike over an alleged inadequate funding of the institution by the government.

The Lecturers, under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), OOU branch immediately after their Congress told journalists that their decision was of “immediate effect”.
The reason, they explained, was because the Visitor to the university, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has refused to adequately fund the university and also had turned deaf ear to all our demands.

The ASUU Chairman, Dr. Deji Agboola who addressed the Press accused the Governor, among other things of “total neglect” of the institution, lamenting that the Governor had done “close to nothing for the school in terms of funding”.

Agboola said, “The little we are asking from the government is to provide adequate funds for the running of the university and at least pay salaries of our members in full.”

They also asked the Governor to, as a matter of urgency get involve in the matter and resolve it quickly, disclosing “we are ready to dialogue with the government.”
The lecturers said that all the new projects in the school were being funded by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), disclosing that the last time they had a similar situation in the school, they resorted to admitting many students to generate fund and this resulted into a major crisis for the school.

Agboola said, “The little we are asking from the government is to provide adequate funds for the running of the university and at least pay salaries of our members in full.”

They also asked the Governor to as a matter of urgency get involved in the matter and resolve it quickly, disclosing “We are ready to dialogue with the government.”

The lecturers had on Monday embarked on massive protest over an alleged non-payment of their 16 months salary arrears and an alleged poor funding of the university by the government, which according to them had resulted in poor state of infrastructure in the institution.

The lecturers then asked the government to reverse the precarious funding situation at OOU; take over the payment of full salary of staff to free the internally generated fund (IGR) for academic and infrastructural development; remove the imminent dangers of quality decline through assured funding structure; release fund for the payment of Earned Academic Allowances in line with experiences in Federal and other state universities; and release fund for payment of entitlements of their unjustly-sacked colleagues.