The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has come under sharp criticism for referring to other universities that announced resumption despite the union’s ongoing strike as “quacks.”
Responding to questions on Arise Television on Thursday on the impact of the Nigerian government’s “No work, No Pay” rule on the universities and whether it is responsible for some universities’ decision to suspend the strike, Mr Osodeke, a professor, said the universities that pulled out of the strike are not members of his union.
He said: “When you are providing data, look at the background. Kwara State University is not a member of ASUU, Osun State University was suspended for its behaviour, you can check. LASU, you mentioned. We are in court with LASU because they sacked all our executives five years ago so they are not part of this struggle and Ekiti State University’s government has the right to say we have reopened just as it has happened in Gombe State University, Yobe and Kaduna State University.
“So, don’t cite those examples as they are irrelevant. Talk about the issue, is the University of Ibadan on strike? Is the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) on strike? Is Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) on strike? Is Bayero University Kano (BUK) on strike? Is Maiduguri University on strike and the University of Lagos? Let’s talk about real universities, not those quacks.”
The ASUU president’s comment has generated reactions among Nigerians including university scholars and Nigerian academics.
University responds
For instance, the management of Ekiti State University (EKSU) has replied to Mr Osodeke, rejecting its categorisation among ‘quack’ universities, even as it described the comments as “totally unacceptable and condemnable”.
The university, therefore, demanded a retraction and an apology from the president.
“The Management calls on Professor Osodeke to toe the path of honour by retracting the provocative remark and tender an unreserved apology without further delay,” it said in a statement by its Head of Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs, Bode Olofinmuagun.
On ASUU
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a Nigerian union of university academic staff, founded in 1978. ASUU is an offshoot of the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) which was established in 1965. At that time, NAUT consisted of only 5 universities in total including University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ife and University of Lagos. Professor Victor Emmanuel Osodeke emerged as the body's president on 30 May 2021.
Professor Victor Emmanuel Osodeke
A professor of soil science and a lecturer at Michael Okpara university.And director of continuous education.
Hail from Delta state Nigeria. Born on 5th August.
No disclosure about his family:Wife and children.I am sure he is married at this age.
His publications/contributions
§ Assessment of Potassium Leaching Behaviour in Selected Soils of Southeastern Nigeria
§ Evaluation of Potassium Fixation Capacity and Residual Values in Soils of Southeastern Nigeria
§ Fractional Recovery of Applied Potassium in Soils of Southeastern Nigeria
§ Application of Langmuir and Freundlich Models in Phosphate Sorption Studies in Soil of Contrasting Parent Materials in South-Eastern Nigeria
Amidst of the lament from Nigeria lecturers.It is not enough to continue the strike
Our lecturers are said to be the poorest paid in Africa, where we pride ourselves as the “Giant of Africa”, with the minnows and Lilliputians doing even better than us. Is that not the reason why our students flood not just Europe and America for studies but also less fancied countries like Ghana, Benin Republic, Lesotho and what-have-you? We lose billions in what has become known as education tourism. So, on this score, Osodeke and ASUU are perfectly justified and they have my unflinching support and unalloyed and undiluted sympathy.
The Nigerian government has never at any point in time given the pride of place to education. Funding has been paltry. Policies have been in fits and jerks. The curriculum is obsolete. And with the children of our leaders schooling in the best schools abroad, the commitment of policy makers to the education sector is eroded. At best, they pay only lip service in lofty statements made but which are hardly implemented. In that they turn around to embezzle, mismanage, misapply, misallocate and misappropriate even the meagre funds voted for education, they laugh us to scorn right in our face.
So, make no mistake about it, the problems in the education sector – the decay and decadence- lie squarely with the government, and not the Buhari government alone but with successive governments since the time when the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime began the commercialization of education, the rolling back of the facilities that made the higher institutions tick, starving it of the required funding which, incrementally but assuredly, have added to land us in the present sorry pass.
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