Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Friday took to the street in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, in protest against poor funding of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso.
The university, co-owned by Osun and Oyo states, has for years been in crisis over inadequate funding. Last year, it was shut down for several months.
On Friday, university teachers from across the country joined in the march against the “lackadaisical attitude” of Osun and Oyo state governments to the troubled institution.
The teachers in large number marched from Freedom Park to the State Secretariat in Abere, Osogbo with placards with inscriptions such as “Oyo/Osun, Don’t Play Politics with the Lives of Our Students,” “Aregbesola/Ajimobi, Do Not Kill the Best State University in Nigeria,” “Ajimobi and Aregbesola Haba! Must LAUTECH Die?”
Speaking with journalists, Secretary of ASUU in LAUTECH, Toyin Abegunrin, decried the neglect of education in the institution and condemned alleged commercialisation of the university.
The coordinator of Akure zone of the union, Alex Odiyi, said the protest was organised to force the two state govenors to address the plight of the university.
“The protest is simultaneously going on in Osun and Oyo to compel the two states to do the needful and be alive to their responsibilities,” Mr Odiyi said.
He said the governors had failed to take action on a Memorandum of Agreement the state governments signed with ASUU before it called off its last strike.
“The people who are at the helms of affairs acquired formal education free of charge. Many of them emerged governors and became very wasteful at the expense of the people,” he said.
Source: Premium Times
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