"He's dead to us, so we made him an obituary" - students

fuad lawal

May 17, 2017 11:36 PM

They are protesting the anyhowness with which the school has been managed in the last year.

___6696127___https:______static.pulse.com.gh___webservice___escenic___binary___6696127___2017___5___18___8___Prof.+Suleiman+Gbadegeshin

Students of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology have printed obituaries for the Vice Chancellor, Professor Suleiman Gbadegeshin.

But he’s not dead in the real sense. He’s just dead to them.

The University has been in turmoil for over a year, and the students are holding the Vice Chancellor responsible. We first saw the Obituary on social media on Wednesday 17th of May.

“We even fried Akara,” a student told us.

In Yoruba tradition, Akara is significant with the deceased. It’s mostly fried in ceremonies to mark the passing of a person. Remember the lecturers at The Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta? They also fried Akara because their suspended Vice Chancellor is dead to them too. Too many dead VCs for one week.

There was no form of aggression against the students by the school authorities.

“The school is trying to manage the situation as carefully as possible, so it doesn’t escalate into violence,” a student told us.

It will be remembered that in December of 2016, military men deployed tear gas to disperse protesters. And of course, backlash of the school authorities followed.

Students of LAUTECH have been wasting away with next to no academic activity for the most part of the last one year.

The staff unions are called for a strike due to non-payment of salaries. For the last few years, the University has suffered due to lack of proper funding from the two universities managing the school, Oyo and Osun State.

The lecturers are demanding the payment of the arrears of their salary that amounts to N7.1 billion.

fuad lawal