Date: 2019-05-12

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Kwara State University (KWASU) Chapter, on Friday condemned the interference of the Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed by appointing an Acting Vice Chancellor for the institution. Issa Abdulraheem, Chairman of the union made the condemnation while addressing newsmen in Ilorin, saying the interference was perceived to be biased and politically-motivated.

Report revealed that the state government had on May 7 announced the appointment of an Acting VC, Prof. Kenneth Adeyemi while the tenure of the incumbent VC is yet to expire. The action led to protest by the students of the university after the issuance of a 24-hour ultimatum for the government to reverse the appointment which eventually led to the closure of the school by the management for security reasons.

"The government has interfered in the affairs of the institution, which ASUU has already warned the government against. For the first time in ten years, KWASU has been closed down; and if this situation is not addressed quickly and reverted to status quo, it could degenerate into further crisis. "The implication of the closure might lead to the inability of the management to meet several of its obligations, an obvious one being finance. KWASU is running on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR); and without the students on campus, generating IGR would be more difficult and staff welfare will be jeopardized," Abdulraheem stated.

"A government that does not pay attention to the importance of education to economic development should leave the institution alone, as it is striving hard on its own with little or no support from the government to become a world class university," he added.