The Ibadan Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) has set a monitoring team to ensure that lecturers would not teach nor attend any statutory meeting while the strike lasts.
This is coming as academic activities have been paralysed on University of Ibadan, Ladoke Akintola University and University of Ilorin campuses as lecturers continue to prosecute the one-month strike declared by the Union to pressure the government to sign renegotiated conditions of service for lecturers among other demands.
The strike is already having an effect on activities relating to academics and processing of final oral examinations for doctoral students and academic seminars are put on hold until after the strike.
Throughout the period, supervision of students will also be affected.
The universities in the Ibadan Zone of the Union held their respectively congresses which were presided over the Ayo Akiwole (UI), Olaniran Abiodun (LAUTECH) and Moyosore Ajao (UNILORIN), all Professors
The meeting ended with the activation of strike monitoring committees to ensure that all members obey the directive of the Union.
Speaking later, Ayo Akinwole, Abiodun Olaniran and Moyosore Ajao maintained that while ASUU was pained by the warning strike, it can no longer subject the welfare of her members to evasive tactics of the federal government.
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The trio stated that the Union felt that rather than going full blown strike, it should, in the interest of the students embark on the one-month warning strike to see if the government would have done the needful saying that failure to do so will ultimately leave the lecturers with no choice than embark on indefinite strike.
On his part, Ayo Akinwole, chairman University of Ibadan chapter, speaks on the demands of the Union to include signing of renegotiated agreements which bother on the salaries and conditions of service of lecturers, mainstreaming of earned academic allowances and releasing of white paper report on federal government visitation panel among others.
Akinwole stated that the strike monitoring team will ensure total compliance adding that “our members feel the pain and have shown commitment to the struggle.
They know it is for us to fight for our destinies and be better treated after staying on the same conditions of service for thirteen years despite the hardship in the country.
The same lecturers who are giving second to nothing still struggle to put the name of Nigeria on global ranking of universities despite poor investment in education by the federal government, he said.
“We have reached a point when we are saying “treat us well, give us a new welfare system and sound conditions of service so that our members can live good lives and enjoy the fruit of their labour.”
At the university of Ibadan, lecture rooms in Faculties of Arts, The Social Sciences, Science among others were open but empty as lecturers made good their threat withdrawing their services from classrooms while students were seen doing paper documentation with non-teaching staff and discussing the strike in groups.
