The management of Kaduna State University has taken a swipe at the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, for referring to some state-owned varsities in the country, including KASU as quacks.
The ASUU President was said to have made the reference on Friday during an interview on national television.
However, reacting to the ASUU president’s comment, the management of Kaduna State University in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer, Adamu Bargo, alleged that such a statement by Osodeke is not actually aimed at a better educational system in Nigeria, but for personal and irresponsible aggrandisement.
According to Bargo, KASU resumed academic activities in good conscience and for the betterment of the students.
He stated that the resumption should not be a reason for the university to be insulted and stereotyped by the ASUU President.
Part of the statement reads:
One may wonder whether the Professor of Soil Science really understands what the word quack represents. Quack means a person who dishonestly claims to have knowledge and skill in some field with little or no foundation, as better exemplified by professionals.
I like to mention here that the highest stage of irresponsibility is insulting fellow colleagues in academia. I thought leadership in academia is about mutual respect and mentoring while also living by good example which the ASUU National finds too tasking. The ASUU President was a bigot for neither mentioning Ambrose Alli University, where he came from which has pulled out from the strike long before KASU Management decided to resume academic activities in spite of the strike nor did he refer to his own University as a quack.
After all, ASUU claimed to be on strike for:
- Rejecting IPPIS for UTAS (KASU has nothing to do with how other employees are paid in a country where education is on the concurrent list)
- Renegotiate the 2009 agreement (KASU Governing Council informed lecturers they shouldn’t worry that after negotiation between FG & ASUU led by its loquacious President, it’ll look into how to implement the agreement without encumbrances)
- Release funds to revitalize the infrastructure of the Universities (release of funds is being determined by the economy and income of the government and not by any strike action)
- Pay outstanding EAA to date (Kaduna State has paid far more to its lecturers the EEA than any FG University did to its own Universities)
- Release of the White Paper on Visitation Panels (This has nothing to do with State universities & KASU should not stunt its progress in a protracted strike that is becoming unreasonably insensitive)
Lest I forget, when ASUU in KASU joined the strike in 2019 and govt paid the 40% salary for work done for the month, ASUU National did virtually nothing positive beyond ranting so the outstanding 60% has not been paid to date. If someone thinks the National President of ASUU can go on strike because of this, is only joking!!!
Let me use this medium to call on Academic staff on strike in KASU to reason and be more concerned with their University and people than the irritating attitude of their irrational leader who labels them as Quacks.
For the benefit of hindsight, KASU is a new generation University and the second most-sought State-Owned University as well as the fastest growing in Nigeria, which was established 18 years ago with eminent scholars like Prof. Idris A. Abdulkadir, OFR, and Prof. Abubakar A. Rasheed, MFR as the pioneer Council members. These scholars-administrators made sure that the appointments of qualified Lecturers were never compromised. The foundation and ethical determination to sustain the same has remained the basic principle of engaging academic & non-academic staff.
By the foregoing, the general public may wish to note as follows:
- KASU is recognised by NUC as a standard University.
- KASU has some of the best brains that are competing favourably with their counterparts around the globe. The world’s No 4 best polymer chemist is in KASU.
- Lecturers in KASU have attracted grants both locally and internationally and are highly rated.
- KASU graduates are rated among the best in the world and enjoy scholarships from different parts of the country and the globe.
- KASU has members in ASUU, and it is unfortunate if the ASUU President is saying that they are quacks, while enjoying monthly check-off dues from their salaries. Does this not give a good reason for every reasonable academic staff in the University to pull out from the Union for this labelling and stereotyping?