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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