The Pro-Chancellor/Chairman, Governing Council of Ajayi Crowther University, Oyo, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), on Wednesday appealed to the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to reach a compromise on the issues that led to the ongoing strike by lecturers in public universities across the country.
Olanipekun spoke during the commissioning of some projects in the school campus.
The 10 projects executed by the school through direct labour were estimated at N45.6m.
According to Olanipekun, the situation on ground makes it imperative for the federal government to reach agreement with the lecturers in order to save the future of students in the affected institutions.
He said: “Here at ACU, we pay our salaries as at when due. We do not owe anybody. We have no problem with ASUU going on strike but as a Nigerian, I want to plead that the earlier ASUU and the federal government put an end to this constant industrial action, the better for all of us, the better for our children and better for the generation unborn.”
“We have been able to open 10 projects today (Wednesday). Please, let us tell people in our country, this is the way to fight corruption. This is the way to manage resources. I have been saying this as a lawyer, fighting corruption is not about naming names and maybe you chain and take people to court. Curb the very tap root. You uproot it, exterminate it of corruption.
“We want to challenge Nigerian governors to send people to ACU and learn how we manage resources and let them to send auditors, architects, quantity surveyors, engineers, and structural engineers, let them compare and contrast what we spend on our projects with what they spend in other public institutions, including government institutions themselves.
“This is our own humble way of telling the government that we have our own way of fighting corruption. We have our own way of instilling discipline into the financial sector of this country. How I wish government takes a cue from this. How I wish the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission would come here, not to arrest, harass our management team but to learn from us.
“How I wish I was a Pro- Chancellor of this university before I was a Pro- Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, I would have learnt so much, more equipped.”
