No resumption until we receive the plan - ASUU Chairman

Premium Time published an exclusive interview with the chairman of ASUU LAUTECH, Biodun Olaniran, yesterday, February 5. The interview sought answers to the several pressing crises going on in LAUTECH. 

We took our time to analyze the over 2000 worded article to bring out the key points.

These are the highlights:

First, according to ASUU Chairman, the cause of the whole crisis in the first place was the “non-release of subventions to the university and subsequent use of internally generated revenue to offset salaries.”

He added that the problem did not just start last year, in fact, ASUU has been campaigning against the use of IGR since May 5, 2015.


The government has been suggesting that the university should use its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to pay lecturers salaries, however, ASUU, whose monthly salaries borders around N380 million, is strongly of the opinion that school fees paid cannot sustain the salaries and allowances since LAUTECH is a public university. “That is why ASUU is saying IGR (internally generated revenue) cannot be alternative to government subventions.”

Tuition fee hike

If you recall, there were some unfounded rumors that LAUTECH was planning to increase the students' tuition fees. Whether this is true or not, we can’t say, but ASUU has also distanced itself from this idea.

When asked about the union’s stance on tuition fee hike, the ASUU chairman said, “ASUU is against commercialization and privatization of education. So we are against any hike in tuition fee.”

Review of ownership

On the topic of ‘ownership’ of the university, the ASUU Chairman said that union never called for a review of ownership.

He added that the union is not involved or joined in the issue of ownership, being “just employees.”

However, ASUU says they are now open to dialogue. Since the government had said they are not in the position to issue a letter of commitment, the ASUU chairman said the next step is to “sit down together and agree on the way forward.”

“Salary was not our primary concern,” the ASUU chairman said. ASUU’s request now is a plan on how the institution would be funded going forward.

“We are asking for a workable payment plan of the amount owed because we understand the economic reality,” the ASUU chairman said.

The long and short of the whole matter is that ASUU stance remains that there will be no resumption until they receive a plan for future funding of the university.

However, in-depth the interview, the major question in the minds of LAUTECH students and parents remained unanswered. No date, or even a time frame, for full resumption of academic activities was given.

Read the full interview here: INTERVIEW: LAUTECH lecturers will only resume on one condition – ASUU Chairman