Wole Balogun, Ado-Ekiti
There was tension on the campus of the Federal University Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), on Wednesday, over the ongoing leadership crisis rocking the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) chapter of the university as the warring factions of the union have refused to sheath their swords on both sides.
Trouble started a few months ago when a faction of the chapter loyal to the zonal chairman of the union in Akure, Ondo zonal district, Prof Olu Olu, including the now embattled chairman of the chapter, Akinyemi Omonijo held a press briefing in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, and raised some allegations of misconduct against the Vice chancellor, Prof. Kayode Shoremekun.
The allegations, one of which was that the VC was not paying the pensions of academic staff as at when due, were dismissed by the Vice Chancellor and a faction of FUOYE ASUU opposed to Omonijo, which included Prof. Omolayo, Oppoola Bolanle and many others, who insisted that remitting of staff’s pension was never a duty of the university management but that of the federal government through the Single Treasury Account (TSA) programme.
The anti-Omonijo’s faction which claimed to be in the majority, further claimed that the embattled chairman has committed impeachable offences by working against the unity, progress and success of the FUOYE chapter of the union and not carrying them along in decision making, being high handed among others.
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They, therefore, begun an impeachment process against Omonijo in their last Congress held on the campus in October last year.
Reacting to the allegations of impeachable offences, Omonijo told newsmen that he had not committed any offence for which he could be impeached by the House. He accused those asking for his head of insubordination , saying that they jad tabled other matters that were outside the agenda of the meeting he had empowered them to hold while he was away for national assignment for the union.
The development led to break up of the ASUU in FUOYE into three three factions namely Academic Staff Concerned Group, Congress of Nigerian Academics, and New Academic Staff Union of FUOYE.
On Tuesday, January 15, the crisis got messier when aggrieved members violently disrupted a congress of the union that was called by the Akure zonal chairman Prof. Olu.
The angry members, who were far more in number than those loyal to Omonijo, seized ASUU’s vehicle that conveyed the zonal boss to the premises of the university for more than three hours threatening to set it ablaze.
It, however, took the intervention of the school’s Chief Security Officer (CSO) who appealed to the aggrieved faction to release the vehicle before normalcy was restored.
The angry lecturers insisted that embattled chairman of the chapter, Dr.Omonijo must first step aside before any Congress would hold on the campus.
It was gathered that the congress of the academic union was about to hold at about 1pm at the venue, on Tuesday, under the supervision of Prof. Olu when angry members stormed the venue to stop the meeting, rang bell, made so much noise and chased away those who wanted it to hold.
A leader of the union and Dean of Faculty of Arts of the university, Dr. Opoola Bolanle Tajudeen, who spoke about the cause of the disruption said: “There was to be a congress but there was no congress because our members felt strongly that Prof. Olu Olu who has been part of our problem in this chapter should not now come to foist any congress on us and they insisted that he cannot hold any congress when the chairman of our chapter that he is imposing on us has committed impeachment offences.
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“There has been a resolution on ground that the chairman has committed impeachable offences and should go.
“Our people really felt bad and demonstrated their grievances. They spoke their mind. However there was no casualty.
“The demands of our members who insist they are still part of ASUU is that current chairman of our branch Omonijo should step down because he has committed impeachable offences.
“Our people cannot allow a system where some people from outside would cone and lord over us. We have our own internal problem and we should be allowed to solve it internally.
“Our people want ASUU to move on but we don’t want Omonijo again, ” he said.