Professor Olayinka

What led to the arrest of some students on campus?

Any Nigerian, even visitors, is free to come to the campus. This place is not a court or a shrine that you have restriction. But on the other hand, students have been asked to go home for the past five weeks. When we asked students to go home, some of their leaders were asking them not to and if we should continue along that path, there will be break down of law and order. Besides, if the situation persists, then, who is in charge in this place? Last weekend, there were many messages on the social media by students union leaders asking their colleagues to come to the students union building by 10am for a meeting.

When we got hold of this, we put the security agents on alert. School is already closed down for the students so, legitimately, they don’t have any right to come to the university to hold meetings. The students union leaders made real their threat by coming around to convene the meeting and the campus security service had to do the job they are paid for and they took the leaders of the students leaders to Sango Police Station. They had chats with police authority at Eleyele. As I speak, they have been released. We are not high handed with them because we know that these students in the next few years will become our alumni.

This morning while waiting for the press conference to start at the senate building before it was relocated to the VC’s office, some members of the non-academic staff gathered very close to the senate building holding a congress, talking about the shortfall in their salaries which they can’t take any longer. They said they will be protesting every day until the management sees reason with them. Some staff also alleged that you want to sack teachers in the staff school. What do you have to say to all these?

Federal Government has not been paying our full allocation since last December. It is on our website. The UI staff strength is almost 6,000. From January to November of 2015, the university was getting N932m monthly but in December of 2015, we got N663m, that was about two thirds of what we needed. From January this year, we started getting N782m whereas what we needed every month to pay salary is N878m. Apart from December that we had a shortfall of N301m, we have been having almost N96m shortfall monthly. Remember, I said the IGR that we are able to muster here from the students fees, grants, micro finance bank and others is what we have been using to pay electricity bill ranging from N30 to N35m including the college of Medicine which sent a bill of about N6m. Every month when we get the allocation, we call meetings of the major stakeholders: ASUU, SANU ASSU, NAATS and cooperative society.

For the month of May, we got the alert that N782m had been paid into our account with CBN. Barely 24 hours, we convened a meeting at senate chamber between 6:30pm till past 9pm as we have been doing since the beginning of the year. We told our colleagues that we have received N782m which will just be enough to pay about 92 percent. I am saying this because some people are now saying we are paying half salary. What we are paying is more than that. I know we are not paying in full which I don’t like. We appealed that they should allow us to pay this money but they said no unless we are able to pay in full including the arrears. As we speak the shortfall from December till date is N790m. The staff unions and cooperatives said it is either we pay them in full or they declare trade dispute. I guess that was why the congress was called this morning.

On the issue of sack of staff of staff school, let me tell you what is happening in staff school. This university is funded by the Federal Government who pays our personnel, overhead and capital costs. We received two circulars, one in 2014 and the other, a follow-up from the Federal Ministry of Education through National Universities Commission, NUC. The circular stated that the operation of staff schools in various universities should be a private enterprise. The implication is that the management has to change. All of us who are staff of universities are staff of the Federal Government through the governing councils. In this case, the staff school of the Nigerian universities is like any company privately established. Their salaries can only be raised internally and not to be drawn from Abuja. The circular stated that if we continue paying the staff of staff schools from the allocation from Federal government, it is like having ghost workers on our pay roll.

We took the circular to council and the council instructed that we should go and discuss it and bring a position paper. Then management decided to set-up a committee chaired by DVC Academic, Professor Oke and the PTA was represented. We know that there is so much unemployment in the country. If one person is sacked, many other persons will be affected. And we agreed that as much as possible we are not going to sack anybody. From January, we stopped paying the staff of staff school from our personnel cost. Happily as at the beginning of this year, we had about N50m in their vote and their wage bill per month is N10m. It means that right from the beginning of this year, what they have in their vote is enough to pay them five months. As we speak, staff of staff school is fully paid till date. But the danger now is that the money has been depleted and maybe we can manage to pay them in full till June ending. Afterward, what happened? How are they going to be paid?

What are you doing to ensure that UI has stable electricity to avert incessant protests from the students?

We are not happy by not providing adequate water and electricity and sincerely sympathize with them. I have been to the halls of residence. I can honestly confirm that the condition under which the students live is not conducive. But some of these students have only been here for about five or six years but I have been here since 1977 that is 39 years whether as a students or staff. In my final years in this university 1980/81, we were sent home as a result of inadequate electricity supply. It is just like nothing has really changed. Indeed, when I was DVC Academic, I stumbled on a record by students of either Zik or Independence Hall. They used manual type writer saying why it is only the Zik and Independence Halls that were not enjoying electricity as much as students in Mellanby, Tedder and Queens Halls, those around the central admin. So it is a long standing problem.

On diesel, it is just like we are very conservative. From a table I saw, it shows how much we are spending on diesel and it has reduced now because we now have too many checks. We have four big generators that can carry the whole campus excluding college of medicine. We will need about 1,000 litres per hour meaning that per hour of putting on generators will cost N160, 000 and for a day, about N1m and for five working days, N5m and for a month N20m. That is why we put like two on for some hours just to reduce cost. It is a challenge we have to put our heads together to solve. Let me also inform you that a German firm has concluded to help us with a solar firm at Ajibode to produce 10 megawatt.

How are you intending to resolve the salary problem and the way forward?

The bursar has paid May salary. Right now he is on his way to Abuja. He will meet with the accountant-general, and authorities at the budget office. I know many people are suffering. I see people requesting for N10, 000 or N20, 000 cash advance to pay children school fees, to give to their children as transport fare back to school, etc. I know times are hard but half a loaf of bread is better than none. A meeting was called by the education minister for the VCs, pro-VCs, and other stakeholders in the education sector. UI ventures have not been bringing money to us because they are reinvesting whatever they generate for expansion so that they can serve the university better in future.

Your final words to your community?

We need to keep hope alive. They should know that tough time will not last but tough people will. Whatever happens, we are going to be transparent. The staff should know that we sympathize with them. We know they are going through a lot of pain, we are optimistic that there are better days ahead. There are problems but we know that they are surmountable