In reaction to the crisis currently afflicting the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho, Chief Adeniyi Akintola, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and Human Rights Activist, has expressed his opinion about the cause of the challenges facing the institution, laying the blame at the feet of the school’s Academic Staff Union (ASUU).

Chief Akintola, in an interview with CEOAfrica stated that the problem of the crisis-ridden school was self-inflicted. Explaining his point, the legal practitioner, who is also a member of the governing council of LAUTECH said “I can tell you that the problem of the school was self-inflicted. Before it went under lock and key, the salaries of the lecturers were paid as at when due and the governing council did its best to ensure that things moved on.

“However, there was a time when Osun state was owing two months subvention while Oyo state was paying, until Oyo state too stopped paying. Don’t forget that the University is jointly owned by Oyo and Osun. Osun State that was owing so much, has its own University. I am not holding brief for the Government because I am not in Ajimobi’s cabinet but I’m telling you what I know about LAUTECH.

“I held a meeting with all the unions in the school and advised them to look inwards since revenue was no longer forthcoming from the government. I proposed that since the students’ school fee is their internally generated revenue, we the governing council will appeal to the Governors in charge of the school to allow the staff control the IGR. When I brought the suggestion, our Chairman, Prof Omole bought the idea.

Chief Akintola further explained that things began to take the wrong turn for the institution when the Academic Staff Union (ASUU) of the University began to demand earned allowances which could not be afforded. He explained “The University was earning and keeping its IGR and paying salaries as at when due in spite of low contribution from Osun state which doesn’t have the money. Unfortunately, our compatriots in the University, especially the Academic Staff Union, in their wisdom, came up one day and said they wanted to receive earned allowance which is not part of the salary.

“The council pleaded with them that the University cannot afford that for now. The staff had been earning their salaries for a year without crisis until they came up with the issue of earned allowances. We took the matter before the two Governors, who at that time were also facing the challenge of paying the salaries of workers in their states. So they didn’t buy the idea of paying an earned allowance. However, the Union was not ready to listen. They taught they could arm-twist the Governors into paying the earned allowance.

Noting that a group of the LAUTECH ASSU members came to see him recently, Chief Akintola asserted that the crisis in the school was not caused by the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) but by Academic union of the University.