The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA) chapter, has raised the alarm over worsening infrastructural collapse in the institution.
We gathered that ASUU Chairperson, Dr. Boluwaji Oshodi, speaking at a press briefing in Akure on Friday, blamed the state government’s refusal to adequately fund the university for the rot on campus.
He lamented that in the last seven years, no capital funds had been released to the institution, leaving lecture halls, laboratories, libraries and offices in dire conditions.
“The neglect of the university has greatly affected the welfare of academic staff in AAUA. Lecture rooms, laboratories and library need some urgent facelift.
“Lecturers’ offices are the most hit. The Faculty of Arts, a two-storey building, for example, has been abandoned by staff accommodated on the second floor because the inner roof has collapsed and is usually flooded anytime it rains.
“The same thing is happening to the Faculty of Education. Since the TETFund intervention was taken away from the university by the State government during the last dispensation, the university had experienced serious decay in infrastructural facilities,” he said.
Oshodi stressed that about 90 per cent of AAUA’s buildings were TETFund projects, describing the institution as “almost a TETFund university.”
He noted that the greatest challenge facing AAUA was gross underfunding, revealing that while the school receives a monthly subvention of N223 million, its wage and overhead bill stands at N555 million. The shortfall of N333 million, he added, is always sourced from internally generated revenue.
The union leader called on the State House of Assembly to hold the executive arm accountable for failing to release funds despite yearly budgetary provisions for the school.
Oshodi explained that lecturers were currently on strike over unpaid two-month salaries and several attempts to meet with the governor had been unsuccessful.
He urged the government to urgently approve a Special Intervention Fund to clear salary arrears and also review the monthly subvention to match the institution’s wage bill.
