Clement Adeyi, Osogbo
The Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) chapter of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, has called on the Osun and Oyo states governments, co-owners of the university and the teaching hospital, to come to a round table and resolve the ongoing ownership and funding crisis rocking the institutions.
The Chairman of JOHESU, Comrade Muyiwa Moronkeji, who made the call in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Monday, while addressing newsmen, noted that the call was not only in the interest of the growth and development of the institution, but also the parents and students of the institution.
“We appeal to the two owner state governments to kindly find a lasting solution to the crisis and channel a way forward for the smooth running of the institution to avoid the attendant implications of the crisis on the masses,” Morenkeji said.
“Our royal fathers, members of the public, pressure groups and opinion leaders should please intervene to achieve the permanent resolution of the crisis,” he added.
The unions also called on the stakeholders to “avoid further fanning of the embers of discord among the two owner states.”
On whether the Federal Government should take over the institution if the owner states fail to reach a compromise, Morenkeji said:
“If the two owner states come to a round table and fail to reach a compromise, then the Federal Government could decide to take over the institutions as a way of proffering a lasting solution to the crisis.
While explaining that Osun State government had been playing its part in the payment of salaries of staff at the teaching hospital in Osogbo, he said: “Osun has been paying us salaries and other entitlements regularly since 2010, but Oyo has not given us a dime since then.”
Morenkeji also suggested that if both states were unable to resolve the crisis, they could decide to part ways so that Oyo could be funding the university in Ogbomosho and Osun funding the teaching hospital in Osogbo.
He added that instead of giving excuses with diverse claims of funding both institutions, the owner states should be factual in their claims with a view to coming together and arriving at a resolution.
Morenkeji, however, argued that “since the crisis escalated in 2013, Osun State government had been solely responsible for the financial obligations of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, which include but not limited to salaries and emoluments of staff, capital projects, infrastructural development etc.”
He enthused that “Osun has been fair and committed to the joint ownership of LAUTECH Hospital Osogbo.”