…From Dele Ogunyemi, Ibadan…
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the National Assembly to go beyond ‘begging’ ASUU to call off its strike but plug spending leakages in government to allow for provision of needed infrastructure for the masses
ASUU also lashed out at the Senate Vice Chairman, Committee on Education, Professor Sola Adeyeye over his comments on the ongoing ASUU strike on why a Professor will demand payment to supervise postgraduate students.
A release signed by the University of Ibadan Chairman of the Union, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye tagged ‘The Goofing Professor Adeyeye: Senate and Begging Comments’, said Professor Sola Adeyeye is using public funds to train all his children abroad hence lack knowledge on the situation of things in Nigerian universities.
Ajiboye also described as “a careless talk” the comment of Senate President, David Mark that ASUU will lose public sympathy if it does not call off its strike saying the Senate has already lost its credibility among Nigerians over its bogus allowances and its perpetual anti-masses stance as opposed to the progressives in the House of Representatives.
The release said: ‘We are fighting a just cause. Can the Senate members wait for four years of their tenure before their allowances are paid? Can the Senate members seat in the chambers without air conditioners? What role has the Senate played to increase budgetary allocation to education. It is even funny for the Senate President to feign ignorance of the ASUU agreement as the sitting Senate President in 2009’.
According to the release, people like Professor Adeyeye ought to have shamefully kept silent when issues concerning Nigerian education is being discussed as ‘his immediate family are not in Nigeria with all his children schooling and living abroad using the millions of public funds being earned by their father in Nigeria to live large abroad’.
It read further: The ‘weeping Senator’ as popularly called by his constituency over non-performance, became a professor at a private university and has private orientation. As a professor at the Duquesne university USA, Professor Adeyeye enjoyed flexible single and family healthcare coverage, including vision and dental insurance, disability benefits and life insurance, tuition remission for employees and family members, retirement savings plan with a generous 8% University contribution for employees with immediate vesting schedule, family leave, paid time off for vacation and holidays and unpaid time for personal leaves of absence, comprehensive employee training programs which promote professional development, access to a recreation center and wellness programs. The question Professor Adeyeye should answer is where in Nigeria a professor enjoys all these with condusive learning environment?. What is the ratio of students to a lecturer in Nigerian universities? Where else in the world will a professor supervise up to 35 students in a session?’