10th February, 2022
By Chimezie Anaso
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) Branch, is divided over the decision to join the impending national strike by the union.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that of the two factions in the university, one is led by Prof. Okey Aniebo, and they intend to join the strike, and the other is headed Prof. Osita Chiaghalam, which is kicking against the industrial action.
They met in separate congresses on Tuesday and arrived at different conclusions.
Prof. Aniebo’s faction started its meeting at the Union Secretariat before members of Prof. Chiaghalam’s faction stormed the venue and disrupted the meeting.
Aniebo and his group left the venue following the confrontation and moved to the university main gate to address the media where some school security personnel went to disrupt them but were rebuffed by the lecturers.
In his address, Aniebo said the university is underfunded by the state government and was only sustained by TETFund and Needs Assessment Fund, both of which are products of past ASUU struggles.
The chairman said some ASUU members who participated in the past ASUU nationwide strike action were still being owed four months salaries by the COOU management in defiance of the pledge that no member would be victimised.
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.
Aniebo regretted that instead of addressing the genuine yearning of ASUU, COOU management was bent on killing the union by intimidating members and using some colleagues to divide it.
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.
“Issue of 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.
On their part, the Chiaghanam-led faction, who do not want to participate in the strike, described 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 Aniebo faction was to truncate the industrial harmony in the university and erode all gains of the university’s stable academic calendar.
He cleared the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Greg Nwakoby, of accusations of wrongdoing and high handedness upon assumption of office, adding that he had added value to the institution instead.
According to him, not only did he stop the borrowing culture, he cleared all the debts of the school which was running close to a billion naira.
“COOU is consistent in up-to-the-minute payment of salaries, it does not owe salaries.
“Nwakoby’s administration broke all barriers to staff promotions ensuring that merited promotions are effected without discrimination.
“It is either ignorance or utter mischief to associate the VC with non payment of pensions.
“For proper records, the VC has paid the university arrears of contributory pension up to October 2021.
“Our eyes are wide open and our ears are on the ground. COOU is one happy family under God,” he concluded. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)