By Bala Usman
Bauchi
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Bauchi zone, has lamented the neglect and underfunding of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomosho by the governments of Osun and Oyo states due to the lingering ownership struggle.
Addressing a press conference in Bauchi yesterday, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Bauchi zone, Professor Lawan Abubakar, explained that the problem with the university was due to the ownership struggle between Oyo and Osun states governments as its combined owners.
He said, “The university was founded on April 23, 1990 in the old Oyo State. The problems of the university started when Osun State was created from the Eastern part of the old Oyo State in 1991; the two new states then failed to agree on the sharing of assets thereby leaving the school without funding.
“Due to their deliberate insensitivity to the plight of the 25, 000 students, over 3, 000 staff and the other services offered by LAUTECH, the problems degenerated from gross underfunding to the following situations.
“Governments of Osun and Oyo states have stopped funding the university (Zero Allocation) since 2013. The institution is being run with fund generated from school fees, which is grossly inadequate to pay salaries and conduct meaningful academic exercises,” he said.
Lawal Abubakar also lamented that the neglect of the university caused persistent industrial disharmony, leading to disruptions of academic activities due to unpaid staff salary arrears, promotion arrears, Earned Academic staff allowances and other sundry issues.
He disclosed that the two owner states ended up by asking the university to go and generate all its financial needs, leading to imposition of N65, 000 local tuition and N72, 000 domestic tuition fees in 2011.
“The university governing council is now considering a hike of these tuition fees to over N150, 000,” he said.
He thereby called on the governments of Osun and Oyo states to quickly resolve the ownership issue so that the university could have one definite visitor and get appropriately funded.