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    Saturday, August 27, 2022

    ASUU President Denies Calling State Varsities Quack


    The president of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has debunked report making the rounds that it named universities owned by State governments quack.

    Several media platforms were on Friday flooded with reactions to purported assertion by the ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke that state universities are quack and should not be taken seriously.

    Recall that Professor Osodeke had on Thursday appeared on Arise TV where he addressed some issues regarding the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by ASUU over six months ago.

    Speaking about some State universities that recently pulled out of the struggle, the ASUU president said, “talk about important universities not those quacks. They’re not part of our strike”.

    The development has triggered backlash from some State universities and concerned Nigerians who lambasted the ASUU president for allegedly naming State universities ‘quack’.

    Recall that the Vice-Chancellor, Osun State University (UNIOSUN), Professor Odunayo Clement Adebooye while reacting to the report yesterday, described ASUU president as a careless talker by saying universities that are not on strike are ‘quacks’.

    Professor Adebooye said the State university has 481 full-time academic staff and among them, 387 are full-time Ph.D. holders, “this is not a quack.”

    For instance, the management of Ekiti State University (EKSU) has replied to Mr Osodeke, rejecting its categorisation among ‘quack’ universities, even as it described the comments as “totally unacceptable and condemnable”.

    The university, therefore, demanded a retraction and an apology from the president.

    “The Management calls on Professor Osodeke to toe the path of honour by retracting the provocative remark and tender an unreserved apology without further delay,” it said in a statement by its Head of Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs, Bode Olofinmuagun.

    The statement noted that the university viewed the comments as “denigrating, unfortunate, reckless and unwarranted.”

    The statement further noted that EKSU is currently the 14th best university in Nigeria and the 2nd best state government-owned university, according to the recent Webometric ranking of universities.

    It added that the university has nearly all its academic programmes accredited by the National Universities Commission (NUC) and relevant professional regulatory bodies.

    A Nigerian commentator, Yusuf Usman, noted that Mr Osodeke has betrayed the essence of quality leadership by making ‘irresponsible’ statements “on a section of the constituency that has placed him on the saddle of leadership.”

    He said it is wrong for Mr Osodeke, the president of a union that prides itself as an association of intellectuals, to refer to the universities whose members of staff elected him as “quack” universities.

    He added that the ASUU president’s comments portray a betrayal of trust “and he must either prove his charges against these universities with facts and figures or publicly tender unreserved apology for his inciting, indecent and unsubstantiated diatribe.”

    Another Nigerian academic from the Federal University, Gashua, Yobe State, Dagari, noted that it is a shame to hear such a statement from the ASUU president on live television.

    He described the comments as an insult of the highest order, saying Mr Osodeke “has gone down in history as the worst ASUU national president ever.”

    Mr Dagari added that the ASUU president should not be allowed to preside over the proceedings of the forthcoming National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the union.

    He said: “It is now very clear, the confused Professor doesn’t have the requisite qualities to lead the union of intellectuals”.

    However, speaking on Saturday, the ASUU president debunked the report saying he was misquoted by the media.

    According to Osodeke, he was referring to only three universities owned by State governments which are currently not on strike.

    Describing the report as fake, Osodeke lamented unprofessionalism in reportage, alleging that the media aimed at creating confusion in the system.

    He said, “There is nothing like that. It is a lie. I have told myself that I will not talk to the press again because they always misrepresent things.

    “I have found out that Nigerian press is specialized in manipulating interviews, reporting what someone did not say just to create confusion in the system. They won’t report things the way it is”.

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