ASUU decries dilapidated infrastructure at Adekunle Ajasin varsity

By Boye Oyeyemi –

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA) chapter, has raised the alarm over what it described as the collapse of infrastructure in the institution due to years of poor funding by the Ondo State Government.

Chairperson of ASUU in the university, Dr Boluwaji Oshodi, told reporters in Akure that the neglect had crippled facilities and worsened the welfare of academic staff.

“The neglect of the university has greatly affected the welfare of academic staff in AAUA. Lecture rooms, laboratories and the library need some urgent facelifts.

“Lecturers’ offices are the most hit. The Faculty of Arts, a two-storey building, for example, has been abandoned by staff accommodated on the second floor because the inner roof has collapsed and is usually flooded anytime it rains.

“The same thing is happening to the Faculty of Education. Since the TETFund intervention was taken away from the university by the state government during the last dispensation, the university has experienced serious decay in infrastructural facilities,” he stated.

According to him, AAUA has “almost become a TETFund university” as nearly 90 per cent of its buildings were constructed through the federal intervention agency.

Oshodi explained that while the university receives N223 million monthly as subvention, its salary and overhead bill stands at over N555 million, forcing it to source more than N333 million from internally generated revenue.

He said members of the union, who are currently on strike over unpaid August and September salaries, had made repeated efforts to meet with Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa without success.

Efforts to reach the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology for comments were unsuccessful, as he did not respond to calls placed to him.