Scores of lecturers of Anambra State-owned Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU) have backed out from the nationwide strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
In a well-attended meeting on Tuesday on the campus, the lecturers said COOU had its peculiarities that had made it impossible to sustain the strike.
The spokesperson for the lecturers, Prof. Osita Chiaghanam, said to continue with the strike would amount to subjecting them and the family members to hunger.
He said, “We have our peculiarities; we are not funded by the Federal Government. Our salaries are paid through internally generated funds. So, our students must be in school and pay their school fees for our salaries and some other things to be done here.
“As part of the national struggle to salvage university education in Nigeria, members of ASUU COOU heeded the national call for both the warning strike and subsequent indefinite strike action as declared on 23th March, 2020.
“However, recent events in our great university have precipitated a long chain of actions and reactions capable of short-circuiting the aspirations of responsible unionism, which ASUU stands for.”
While stating that the COOU ASUU leadership had derailed, Chiaghanam said the university was recently portrayed “in public domain for utterly wrong, misleading and malicious reasons.”
The ASUU Chairman of the university, Prof Okey Aniebo, had alleged that his life and job were on the line, stating that he had got several threats because he refused to yield to management’s pressure to back out from the strike.
Aniebo said, “Don’t be surprised if I’m sacked any moment now. My life and job. – Punch.
