OAU Protest: Union Decries ASUU President’s Comments

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The President of Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has been accused of spewing lies on the present Obafemi Awolowo University, (OAU) crisis.

The National Coordinator of Congress of University Academics (CONUA), Mr. Niyi Sunmonu, claimed yesterday that lies have become Osedeke’s trade mark whenever he talked about OAU in a statement that was made available to THISDAY in Osogbo. 

 Sunmonu remarked that Osedeke betrayed his hatred for CONUA by dragging the fast growing union into a matter that it has no hand in whatsoever.

He pointed out that Osedeke alleged that CONUA helped Professor Ogunbodede to become the Vice Chancellor in 2017. “For a fact, CONUA did not exist in OAU until 2018 after the expulsion and suspension of about 900 academic members of OAU from ASUU by the National EXCO of that union simply because they stopped their check off dues when the President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, singlehandedly removed the elected treasurer of the union and as a signatory to the bank accounts of the union. This action of the president opened the floodgate of withdrawals from the said bank accounts by the appointees of the President.

“Osodeke has been feeding the public with cooked up and incorrect narratives instead of telling the truth as an academic. He knows why he has chosen to go against the grains of truth on this matter,” he clarified.

Sunmonu noted that as far as CONUA is concerned, the appointment of OAU vice-chancellor in 2016 was marred by fraud and ASUU executives in OAU, with active connivance of the ASUU national, and in particular Professor Osodeke himself, did not see anything wrong in this.

He remarked that “it was the non-teaching unions that went to court to stop the exercise. While the counsels of the non-teaching unions were struggling to file their papers in the court, the selection committee invited the candidates for interaction. This led to the blockade and protests by these unions on campus.

“The selection committee then relocated to Abuja for the interaction which only one candidate out of the six shortlisted candidates from OAU attended. Interestingly that only candidate was appointed after the Abuja event. The protest continued after the Abuja appointment, this culminated in the events that led to the cancellation of the process by the government while Professor Anthony Elujoba was appointed as the acting vice chancellor.

“It is unfortunate that Osodeke has decided on the part of revisionism in his narratives. He does not see the connivance of his ASUU brothers in the crisis that engulfed OAU in 2016. Rather than condemn the act of connivance demonstrated by ASUU in supporting illegality, he is blaming CONUA for the woes of his union in OAU. For instance, the selection committee that short-listed the applicants awarded 100 per cent to one of the candidates in blatant disregard for the rule of the process but Osodeke did not see anything wrong in this because it favoured ASUU’s candidate.”

“The Branch Chairman, Dr. Caleb Aborisade, went to the press without congress approval to adjudge such exercise as ‘free, fair and followed due process.’ At a congress, the ASUU chairman was berated for issuing such a statement which he called ‘ASUU position on the appointment of the vice-chancellor,’ and was asked to repudiate the statement but refused to do so till he left office. Osodeke will claim he has no details of this!

“Furthermore, Osodeke will feign ignorance that both the ASUU Trustees and the Ethics and Grievance Committees that visited OAU for fact findings on the crisis in OAU in 2016 found Dr. Aborisade culpable in their reports.

“Specifically, the Ethics and Grievance Committee condemned Aborisade’s action viz: ‘Did not speak the truth to the congress about the procedure by council in short-listing  candidates and determining the person who purportedly emerged as vice chancellor to the branch contrary to code of practice No 7(iv)b, c,d,e (page 45). This is an infraction that Osodeke is afraid to tell the public about the activities of his union in OAU.

“Osodeke’s vituperations on Professor Ogunbodede being a member of CONUA were uncalled for and it is laughable. As a professor and supposed activist, he should know that the formation of an association is a prerequisite for its registration and not vice versa. Saying that Ogunbodede claims to be a member of an association which is yet to be registered is a personification of ignorance on the part of Osodeke as far as labour law is concerned in Nigeria.

He stressed that there are associations in Nigeria that have filed in their registration documents but are fully recognised by the government. CONUA is one of these associations.

Sunmonu said that “since the emergence of CONUA, Prof Osodeke has never been comfortable because he could see freedom coming the ways of academics in Nigerian universities. He is afraid of CONUA bold steps in confronting the evil effects of strikes in our universities; hence he is bent on attacking CONUA at every opportunity.

He observed that their frank advice to Osodeke is to always be guided by his conscience whenever he is narrating events that unfolded in OAU in the recent past because truth is sacred. He should also learn to mind his business in ASUU without poke nosing into the affairs of CONUA