Scarcity of Lecturers In Olabisi Onabanjo University Worries Asuu

The Chairman of ASUU in OOU - Olabisi Onabanjo University, Dr. Adesola Nasir, has raised the alarm over the dearth of lecturers and students in the institution, leading to her failure to fill the admission quota.

Mr. Adesola, as he addressed newsmen at the university’s mini campus, Ago-Iwoye, Ijebu, over the looming ASUU national strike against the Federal Government’s alleged failure to implement the 2009 agreement, lamented that the ASUU was perturbed that OOU is still unable to fill the admission quota given to it by the NUC, for the 2010 admission.

According to him, “this year, we are still struggling to fill our quota.

 It is saddening if we  remember that OOU used to be over subscribed just three years ago. The quota went down two years ago, the  governing  council constituted by the last government of Ogun State,  unleashed terror on both staff and  students of this university, such that over 150 lecturers were  sacked without recourse to due process,” he said.

Tracing the  causes of the problems ravaging the  state-owned institution, Adesola said: “The  most worrisome is that the  past governing  council published in the dailies that most of the certificates carried by OOU graduates cannot be trusted, saying that the certificates are fake.

“All the students and those that have graduated are carrying the stigma. So, parents have read  those things and why will a parent bring his/her child to a school whose certificates cannot be trusted. The other one is shortage of lecturers and shortage of staff, and whenever exams are concluded, it takes many weeks or months to compute results. So, these are the problems until we have  enough staff to handle courses.

“These are the reason students do not come here, but there is a way out, which is that  the lecturers in this university, who have been unjustly sacked must be brought back immediately. We must start a programme of  rapid  development of academic staff. Until we do that, we will continue to be in this comatose stage,” ASUU submitted.

The ASUU,  however,  said the state  government must treat  the institution as a university, saying that the  university  must  be adequately funded. He claimed that,”the last  government virtually killed this university  because, for almost a year, the government was releasing half of what is needed to pay salaries  and even that was not regular and when lecturers are not paid how can they be committed”, he said.

Dr. Adesola , who gave a hint that the ASUU might embark on a strike as members of the  National Executive Committee, NEC, of the union will converge on the University of Port-Harcourt, River State, to deliberate on the next step to  take over  the Federal Government’s failure  to implement the agreement.

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