The management of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, has asked its students to proceed on a two-week mid-semester break.
The directive came after some aggrieved indigenes of the university’s host community besieged the campus with charms and other fetish objects protesting the appointment of Prof Adeboye Bamire as the substantive Vice Chancellor of the institution.
The management alleged that the protesters assaulted some workers and students of the institution.
A statement issued by the university’s Registrar, Mrs. M. I. Omosule, said the break would start on Monday, March 28, adding that decision for the break was taken during its last management meeting.
In fact, majority of universities across the country are likely to shut down from Monday, when the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) plan to commence a two-week warning strike.
The decision may completely cripple activities in Nigeria public universities against the back drop of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Nigerian Academic the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
While the leadership of ASUU in OAU had declared an indefinite strike over unpaid Academic Earned Allowance, members of a parallel academic union on the campus – the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) – refused to join the industrial action and had continued teaching.