Emmanuel Osodeke succeeds Biodun Ogunyemi as ASUU president

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has elected a new president to pilot its affairs.

On Sunday, the union staged its national delegates conference in Awka, Anambra state, where it elected a new executive council to take over leadership of the union for the next two years.

Emmanuel Osodeke(pictured left) of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Abia was elected president.

Chris Piwuna, a consultant psychiatrist and associate professor at the College of Medicine, University of Jos, was elected as his deputy.

Siji Sowande was elected as treasurer; Ade Adejumo as ASUU’s financial secretary; Austen Sado as investment secretary; Adamu Babayo as an internal auditor, and Stella-Maris Okey as the welfare secretary.

Osodeke’s emergence follows the end of the tenure of Biodun Ogunyemi, the former president, after four years.

Under Ogunyemi, ASUU embarked on a protracted strike over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the federal government in 2009. He raised concerns about earned academic allowances (EAA) and funding.

Amid the strike, which started in March and ended in December 2020, Ogunyemi also opposed the adoption of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) while backing an alternative payroll software.

“ASUU is struggling to ensure that the children of the poor, who cannot afford the prohibitive cost paid in private universities or do not have opportunities to study outside Nigeria, get quality education,” Ogunyemi had said.

“This will only happen when FG adequately funds public universities and addresses the rot and decay in them.”