The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University chapter, is split between two groups over whether or not to join the planned national industrial action over members’ welfare.
On Tuesday, the two groups led by Profs. Okey Aniebo and Osita Chiaghanm had separate congresses and came to divergent conclusions.
Prof. Okey Aniebo’s side, who met in the Union Secretariat to begin their meeting, said that they will join the national body on strike.
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Following the incident with several teachers, Aniebo and his party left the venue and proceeded to the university main gate to face the media, where some school security staff attempted to disturb them but were rebuffed by the lecturers.
In his speech, Aniebo stated that the university was underfunded by the state government, and that the institution’s existence had been aided by the TETFund and the Needs Assessment Fund, both of which were created as a result of previous ASUU efforts.
According to the chairman, several ASUU members who took part in previous ASUU countrywide strikes are still due four months’ pay by COOU management, despite the agreement that no members would be victimized.
He said lecturers in the university had not received Earned Academic Allowance and that they had no hope of pension because the employee component of the contributory pension was not being remitted.
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Aniebo regretted that instead of addressing the genuine yearnings of ASUU, COOU management was bent on killing the union by intimidating members and using some colleagues to divide the union.
He urged the Federal Government to implement the existing agreements with ASUU and avoid another industrial action which would be the last resort.
“As you have witnessed, agents of the Vice Chancellor for the second time have disrupted our lawful meeting at the Union’s Secretariat, our members are intimidated into not joining our meetings.
“Poor funding has not been adequately addressed at the Federal level while state owned universities like COOU have been abandoned at the mercy of the TETFund and NEEDS Assessment Intervention funds.
“As a tradition of our great Union, this press conference is an early warning shot that we are reluctantly being driven to the point of entering another vicious cycle barely one year since the last traumatic experience,” he said.
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On their part, the Chiaghanam led faction described the Aniebo and members of his faction as pretender unionists, vowing not to welcome the incoming administration in Anambra with an industrial action.
Chiaghanam who is also the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university said the only goal of the faction was to truncate the industrial harmony in the university and erode all gains of the university’s stable academic calendar.
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