By Ikenna Asomba

Against the backdrop of crises which rocked the Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education (AOCOED), Ijanikin, Lagos, in the last quarter of 2014, a principal member of the school’s chapter of Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU-AOCOED), Comrade Lateef Igboro, has called on the management to be transparent and avoid involving in financial irregularity or maladministration.

Igboro in a petition sent through the Registrar (Secretary Governing Council and Management Committee) to the Chairman and members of the AOCOED Governing Council, as well as the AOCOED Management Committee, said the call became imperative, to avoid a repeat of industrial actions by staff unions, which shut academic and administrative activities in the institution, last year, over alleged administrative malpractice.

In the petition copied to the Lagos State Governor, Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Lagos State Head of Service and Lagos State Commissioner for Training and Establishments, made available to Vanguard Learning, Igboro among other things, “requested for the authority relied upon by AOCOED management for ordering a restriction on NASU members who are of the security unit of the Provost Department not to be appointed or elected as Executive member of the various unions they belong; why ACOCOED management conspired with the recently impeached officers of NASU to disassociate some members of NASU through non-deduction of their mandatory monthly dues from their salaries.

“This is a clear infringement and deprivation of their fundamental rights which also negate the provisions of the 1999 constitutions of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended with the aim of weakening the workers union on campus for challenging the AOCOED management for not remitting the workers deducted taxes, pensions and cooperative to appropriate coffers,” he said.

The activist in the petition said: “As it is clearly known that secrecy is variant to democratic norm and administrative ethics practices in the world, members of the AOCOED Governing Council, members of management committee, Deans, Directors and Head of Departments, Programme Secretaries and all officers on Level 13 and above are implored to sign an oath of transparency and accountability in the nearest high court of jurisprudence without any delay to assure the government and the general public that your reign shall not continue to involve in any financial irregularity, maladministration, non-observation of rule of laws, due process, secret dealings among other unsuitable practices.”