WHY UNILORIN REUNITES WITH ASUU

Hammed Sherifdeen, Hassan Aishah Eniola

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Professor Sulyman Age Abdulkareem has spoken on the rationale behind the reunion of UNILORIN with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Vice Chancellor disclosed the reason for pulling out of ASUU almost two decades ago, how the reunion was came by, how the reunion benefitted the university and his view and stance on the ongoing strike which was embarked on by ASUU since February 14.

Although, Professor Sulyman admits that there are hard realities – poor payment and facilities – in the education sector, he said he doesn’t believe that the right thing to do is to embark on strike.

Excerpts

Concerning his first yeear in office despite the poor relationship between the University and the Academic Staff Union of Universities?

“In the first year, things were somehow rough because we were on Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) and whatever was given to you as a university to run it, you had to make sure it went round and there were a lot of things that were paid out of IGR that was making things very difficult in the first year. But since the IPPPIS came up, things have levelled up to the point that you know how much IGR you have when students resume and you must be able to manage it to make sure that it lasts the whole session and that is what we were doing.

When asked about the reunion of the varsity’s branch of ASUU with the National body and that if he is worried about the interruption academics activities.

He had stated in his words “Let me set the record straight. We did not pull out of ASUU. We were suspended. When they came and said they were ready to lift the suspension, I as VC can’t say I don’t want you on my campus. ASUU suspended this university and throughout the 19 years, there must have been more than one dozen meetings all over Nigeria. From Ogbomosho to Oyo, Abeokuta, Ado Ekiti, several places. Each time they met, they were not able to reach a truce. But this time and God is my witness, four people came through that door from the national body and said they wanted to make peace with the local faction. I remember telling them, ‘you are not fighting the VC as far as I am concerned.’ The people you are fighting, if you can make peace with them, it is fine.All that happened is nothing other than having two warring parties fighting each other. God used me for them to sit down and talk to each other.If you ask me, is joining the right thing to do? Being forgiven or brought back to the union does not mean you have to go on strike. I know the union believes in some issues and I am a member by the way. But one thing I have never agreed to since I joined in 1996, coming from a totally trained American background, is that I don’t believe any lecturer should go on strike.If you have grievances with those who are running the institution, you have a reason to raise issues. But it should not be to the detriment of the students. Again, I was lucky. From primary school up to PhD, I never missed one day in my life and it is because I had good teaching, good tutoring, good education and I can only give that credit to my teachers and lecturers.So I never once believed and till now that you are talking to me, that the right thing to do is to go on strike.If they keep telling me that that is the only language the government understands, there must be a way to protect the students. There are some hard realities. The pay is poor. Facilities are not the best you can have in the country. This system is still able to produce extremely good students. We must do our best as lecturers to make sure that the little available is used in such a way to give the very best education to our students. That is what I will implore fellow ASUU members to do, but not to say that the government is meeting the needs of ASUU or the education as required.Whatever is available, we must do our best to make sure that we do not fail our students on the contract between us them.

Further asked what would be your advice to ASUU and the Federal Government?

Each time we go on strike, it is bad for the lecturers and equally bad for the students. Continuity breeds something in you that you cannot equate to broken or abridged acquisition of knowledge. Continuity, sustenance of lectures, learning and continuous academy should guide us in the way we run our system. When you spend most part of the time sitting down at home, it is not good for any mind, whether students or lecturers. I am a scholar to the core. All my life, I am either in school or at work. So, making a mind go idle is a taboo to me even for one day. Your mind should progressively be looking for things to do or improve. It should not come to a point where you go home for six months and you worry about whether you are going to resume or not. That is not how to treat a good mind, you should develop it but not deprive it of the needed growth.

The above is culled from university website