At the University of Ibadan, the strike action by by Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, which began Monday 1 July has generated
some bad blood between ASUU and some sections of the university, with
breaches being committed.
For instance, ASUU was at loggerheads with the Faculty of Law for
organizing examination for their final year students in order to ensure
that they do not miss going to Law School this year. The examination
which took place at Dominican Institute,
Samonda area of Ibadan, outside the university campus was said to have
been invigilated by some of the parents of the graduating students.
It was alleged that the faculty took the step because some of the
candidates were said to be children of some deans in the university and
prominent Nigerians, including Senator Iyiola
Omisore. Getting wind of what was believed to have been an illegal
examination, the magazine learnt that ASUU members went to the venue to
challenge the conduct of the examination but were harassed and
assaulted. To prevent a breakdown of law and order, the ASUU members
left with a promise that appropriate action would be taken once the
strike is over.
A member of ASUU described the examination as illegal. News also learnt
authoritatively that some faculties also held examinations for their
post graduate students while projects supervisions never stopped.
In another development, the UI authorities also sidetracked the striking
academic staff and conducted the post UTME examination for incoming
candidates into the university on Saturday September 28 2013. The
exercise which was considered successful was lauded by parents of the
affected candidates including Mr. Olaitan Oladepo,
and Mrs. Olaoluwa Mary and the candidates have already seen their
results. But adversely affected are the students of Distance Learning
Centre, DLC, of the university which has previously lost a session due to the 2009 strike action of the academic staff.
Failure of the DLC students to write any examination this year would
result into them losing two academic sessions: 2011/2012 and 2012/2013.
The students who had started writing their examination for 2011/2012
academic session were forced to stop. The centre that
ought to have admitted new students for 2013/2014 session could not do
so as a result of the strike. “There is no facility for us. There are no
classrooms for us. We have to wait for the regular students to finish
their academic programmes before we can be attended to and that is why
our interactive session and examination always hold when regular
students are on holiday. When the strike is call off, they will neglect
us and concentrate on the regular students and before you know it, they
have regularized for them and who knows the
numbers of years we will lose before we finish our programmes”, a DLC student said.
Dr. Segun Ajiboye: promises action against UI Law Faculty Reacting to
the development, ASUU chairman, UI chapter, Dr. Segun Ajiboye said the
Law Faculty ought to have waited for the end of the strike before
conducting the examination. “Why is the faculty in a hurry especially
when ASUU is on strike?
Our union has a position for punishing erring members and this will be
appropriately applied at the end of this struggle. We take it as one of
the skirmishes around during struggle and it will be
dealt with appropriately when this struggle is over”. On the post UTME,
the union leader saw no sense in conducting the examination for
prospective candidates when the system is yet to adequately take care of
its current students. “This is part of the anomalies we are talking
about in Nigeria.
JAMB gave directive to the VC, go and bring the list of admitted
students or you forfeit admission. It is an anomaly and that is why we
want the law that established JAMB to be reviewed so that it will just
serve as clearing house and it will not be a body
giving directives. You can’t take care of the students you have and you
are bringing another one. What is this madness all about?”
Justifying the union’s position on DLC, he assured, “But let our
students know that at the appropriate time when this strike is over,
they will be taught their regular courses and they will graduate as at
when due. We can assure them that our union is a
responsible union, and we will make sure that their interest is adequately taken care of.
DLC should not panic. Very soon the struggle will be over and we can guarantee our students, regular
and DLC, that their interests will be well protected and they will graduate as at when due”.
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