ASUP (MAPOLY) to Amosun: How will you fund MAUSTECH, Ogun Poly?

The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, (MAPOLY) branch, has asked the state governor, Ibikunle Amosun to reveal how the state intends to fund Moshood Abiola University of Science and Technology and the newly-established Ogun State Polytechnic, Ipokia.

The union at a special congress held on Wednesday, raised doubts over the state government’s capacity and ability to fund the new university in a sustainable manner, considering that salaries of the MAPOLY staff were being paid from students’ school fees.

While declaring support for the proposed university in a communiqué signed by the chairman of the union, Kola Abiola, the union, however, noted that the transition committee led by former Executive Secretary, National University Commission, Prof. Peter Okebukola had lost its relevance. The union reiterated that it no longer have confidence in the membership and activities of the committee.

The communiqué reads in part: “what are the resources on ground to facilitate the approval to commence operations in the proposed Ogun State Polytechnic? How is MAUSTECH and the new Ogun State Polytechnic going to be funded, especially the funding of overhead costs in the short run?

“How do we ensure on a sustainable basis, the payment of salaries of over seven hundred (700) existing staff of MAPOLY? This is a pertinent question, given the fact that presently, salaries are mainly sourced from school fees paid and especially now that admission is being suspended and even the new university and Ogun State Polytechnic will of necessity admit less numbers of students (both being new institutions of learning respectively?”

It would be recalled that Abiola in an interview with Platform Times recently revealed that MAPOLY gets N11 million occasionally to fund the wage bill of the institution that stands at N150 million.

Source: Press Club MAPOLY @ www.mapolypress.wordpress.com