
The Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndufu Alike branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has disbursed the sum of five hundred thousand naira (₦500,000) as a one-off scholarship to three indigent students of the institution.
Speaking during the presentation at a special congress at the Needs Assessment Auditorium of the institution, the AEFUNAI ASUU branch chairperson, Comrade Louis Omenyi, said the purpose of the congress was to “transmit the ASUU Indigent Student Scholarship awarded by the president of the Union, Comrade Emmanuel Osodeke on 12th November 2023, to mark the ASUU Heroes Day.
Comrade Omenyi said the national secretariat awarded two of the scholarships while the AEFUNAI branch of the union awarded the remaining one, stressing that the gesture was a “practical demonstration of the Union’s rejection of the World Bank-inspired policy on commercialization of education to which Nigerian government had been hooked” as well as the fulfillment of their social corporate responsibility.
He said the Union would continue in that direction until they rescued the educational system and the country as a whole from “the stranglehold of the ruinous imperialist, capitalist and heartless neo-colonialists and their wicked agents in Nigeria”, he concluded.
Comrade Omenyi said ASUU would continue to reject and resist the continued withholding of their eight months salary, non-payment of their EAA, inconclusiveness of the Professor Nimi Briggs-led Re-negotiation Agreement, continued illegal imposition of IPPIS on the Nigerian University System, and the imposition of “the so-called Core Curriculum Academic Minimum Standards (CCMAS), and any other anti-welfarist actions against its members.
Speaking at the occasion, the Vice Chancellor of AEFUNAI, Professor Sunday Elom, commended ASUU for their gesture towards the indigent students in the university, and called on other unions and organizations to borrow a leaf from ASUU by supporting indigent students, assuring that the university would continue to provide a favorable level playing ground for students to exist.
Professor Elom who was represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, of Administration, Professor Abel Ezeoha, stated that for ASUU to afford the gesture at this time of scarcity tells much about what ASUU stands for and counseled the beneficiaries not to divert the gift but use it for their educational needs.
In their goodwill messages, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the immediate past Chairperson of ASUU AEFUNAI, Professor Ogugua Egwu, branch chairman of NASU represented by Comrade Kelechi Nwali, and the SUG president represented by Comrade Uzu Amobi Ekunyi, all eulogized ASUU for the humanitarian gesture.
The recipients included Ezeakolam, Solomon Chidiebube (Department of Economics and Developmental Studies), Okorie, Akunna Bridget (Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture), and Alozie, Rosemary Olanma (Department of Philosophy and Religion).
In an appreciation speech on behalf of his colleagues, Ezeakolam Solomon Chidiebube, thanked ASUU for the kind gesture, adding that it would go a long way in solving their financial problems.
He promised that they would make judicious use of the scholarship fund as it had come at the most auspicious time.
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