The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has faulted virtual matriculation organised by the Vice-Chancellor, Osun State University, Professor Labode Popoola describing it as an alleged scam.

The union alleged that the matriculation was aimed at getting financial favour from the federal government.

In a release signed by the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Professor Ade Adejumo, the union described the virtual matriculation as a charade.

The Ibadan Zone of ASUU comprises the University of Ibadan, Ladoke Akintola University, University of Ilorin, Kwara State University, and Osun State University.

According to the Union, the University has succeeded in exposing the hapless students whose parents are experiencing non-payment of salaries, amputated salaries, disengagement, and rightsizing due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the world to be exploited by cyber cafe operators.

ASUU noted that poor students do not have the wherewithal to cope with financial demands of online learning saying this is why ASUU is on strike to make Government fund revitalisation of infrastructure including ICT.

The University of Osun had conducted virtual matriculation in a ceremony attended by only the principal officers of the institution led by the Vice-Chancellor, Labode Popoola who stated that the institution will strive to be a 21st-century university.

But ASUU stated that UNIOSUN cannot complete effectively as it lacks the infrastructure to execute e-learning delivery.

According to the Union, members of the Union are on strike adding that the students should not be scammed to expect virtual classrooms.

ASUU maintained that many public varsities have non-existent ICT infrastructure adding that the government must fund ICT infrastructure if it is interested in delivering e-learning in the Post COVID-19 era.

” In the UNIOSUN Vice-Chancellor’s heart of heart, can he honestly beat his chest that all the students of that University have the wherewithal to key into his e-learning platform. Moreso, given the fact that the majority of the students are from very humble backgrounds, is this policy, not a ploy to shut out such students from accessing the teaching and learning interaction?”

” Mr. Vice-Chancellor should come out clearly to tell the nation what his real motives are? We suspect the motivation here is financial rather than altruistic. Is this another antic to undermine ASUU that the VC knows is currently on strike? To this, we say, anyone who works at cross-purposes with our Union’s patriotic struggle to improve funding of public universities, is an enemy of the people. Anyone, in the guise of being a Vice-Chancellor, who subverts the current struggle of the union, through the organising of phony teaching arrangement, which the Nigerian public universities cannot effectively deliver, is living in self-deceit and a fool’s paradise”.

“But for ASUU’s historic struggles, will characters like the VC have any meaningful public university to preside over as Vice-Chancellors? For the avoidance of doubt, this struggle will succeed like others before it to the eternal shame of characters in the mold of the Vice-Chancellor under the reference”.