Don’t fill Google form designed by management, ASUU OAU tells members
The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has enjoined its members not to fill any Google form designed by the university management, saying it is a “charade that will benefit nobody.”
In a statement signed by its chairman, Dr Adeola Egbedokun, on Friday, the union said it had since completed computation and was “eagerly waiting for our payment.”
ASUU OAU declared an indefinite strike on January 31, 2022 over the failure of the university administration to pay its members’ Earned Academic Allowance despite alleged series of meetings with the union’s executive and interventions by the zonal and national leadership of ASUU as well as some elders in the university.
Egbedokun, who blamed the vice chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, for the impasse, said the union would keep monitoring the activities of the university administration with regard to the disbursement of the EAA and ensure that members’ money is disbursed in accordance with the template and computation submitted by ASUU.
“Any payment done contrary to this will attract the wrath of the union and every kobo misapplied will be retrieved,” he warned.
He noted that a purported meeting of ‘all academic staff’ held on February 1, 2022, was an extension of the vice chancellor’s meeting with a group which he said is neither legally recognized nor have any agreement with the federal government, but which wants to dictate how benefits emanating from ASUU struggle “which they vehemently worked to sabotage” ought to be disbursed.
According to him, the meeting, as monitored by ASUU’s Strike Monitoring Committee, was attended by fewer than 250 persons (out of about 1,280 academic staff in the university), contrary to the propaganda published in a news channel that it had 400 academics in attendance.
“It is very important to state clearly that the union is not against the EAA disbursement to deserving academic staff. The position of the union is that every member must be subjected to the same template, and the only template acceptable and recognized is the one designed by ASUU,” he said.
Egbedokun said 90 percent of lectures and meetings in the university have been put on hold since the commencement of the strike, contrary to claims by the university that lectures and other academic activities are going on.