The lecturers kick-started their protest as early as 8.30 am, moving from one faculty to the other, carrying placards, delivering speeches, singing as well as chanting protest songs.
The UNILAG ASUU Chairman, Dr Adelaja Adekoya, who briefed journalists during the protest march, said for many years, the university’s academic staff had been subjected to all forms of inhuman treatments.
He also said non-commitment of the university’s management to implement previous agreements worsened the situation.
“For many years, academic staff in UNILAG have been facing a lot of challenges and these manifest mainly in our condition of service.
For instance, we are facing the challenge of notional promotion. What this means is that for people promoted through professional grade, their papers take a long time before they are completed. Also, when you send out your paper for processing, it is meant to be back-dated and the benefits also backdated but at the University of Lagos, when your promotional paper is back-dated, you don’t ever get the benefits attached to it,” he said.
Adekoya added, “We had a local implementation committee in 2010 which was incidentally headed by the present Vice Chancellor, Prof. Rahman Bello. Then, we all agreed that the issue of notional promotion would be a thing of the past in the university and that all those who have been promoted will be paid their arrears. But in what could be described as a paradox of monumental proportion, this is not being implemented. Recently, newly promoted professors and associate professors were made to sign that they cannot even protest issue of notional promotions. Now, we are telling the university that what they are doing is very wrong.”
Adekoya said if nothing is done about their demands, the union would be left with no option than to embark on strike.
“We are not used to giving ultimatums; UNILAG ASUU is known for action.
Although we don’t want strike, we may eventually be forced to embark on comprehensive, indefinite and total strike,” he said.
The institution’s acting Vice Chancellor, Prof. Babajide Alo, who tried to dissuade the protesters from going ahead with their protest earlier in the day, described the action as unnecessary. He said most of the issues being protested against were being looked into by the school management.
