Aregbesola Decries Activities Of Labour Unions In Varsities
Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola on Thursday lamented incessant disruption of academic calendars in tertiary institutions through strike actions by labour unions across the country.
Receiving members of the governing Council of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife in his office at Osogbo, Aregbesola urged union leaders to take into consideration the students who are always at the receiving end of these actions.
According to him, the damages done by these industrial conflicts is unprecedented, adding that it has become embarrassing to Nigeria in comity of nations.
He also charged Nigerian Universities to engage much more in research development that would proffer lasting solutions to myriads of problems be-devilling the nation.
Aregbesola who lamented the alarming rate of poverty in the land, called on the management of OAU and other Nigerian universities to come up with solutions on matters and challenges facing the country.
“If hunger is eliminated from our land, then human beings will be normal. Hunger is the true definition of poverty and poverty is the great grandfather of all crises,” he said.
He lamented Nigerian universities’ failure to use research development to address the nation’s socio-economic problems.
He urged them to embark on research capable of developing agriculture for food production and security.
Aregbesola called on the Nigerian universities to focus on the society and add value to it so that the society, too, could embrace them.
He therefore promised to partner with OAU in every capacity to enable them live up to expectations.
The OAU Council Chairman, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, said the university would partner with the state government to continue the good legacies that Aregbesola had set, even after his tenure.
He also assured that the university would continue to perform its social responsibilities as part of its contributions to the socio-economic development of the state.
Ogunbiyi enthused that Aregbesola had been able to live his footprints in the sand of time through what he described as his gigantic infrastructure development in the state.
He said that it was the development that inspired the members of the university council to pay him a courtesy visit to commend him and encourage him to do more.
