Unilorin ASUU donates N3m to IDPs

               

Members of the University of Ilorin Chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have donated N3, 078,092.91 to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) as part of their contributions to the efforts of the Federal Government to make lives bearable for the victims of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-eastern part of the country.

Presenting a cheque for the amount to the Director General of the Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Abuja, Mallam Abbas G. Idriss, last Tuesday (January 26, 2016), the Vice-Chairman of the Union, Dr. Lanre. Ajibade, who represented the Chairman, Dr. AbdurRasheed Adeoye, said that the contribution formed the bulk of the voluntary one per cent contribution from the University lecturers' November 2015 salaries.

             It would be recalled that the members of the Unilorin Chapter of ASUU had, at their last October Congress, unanimously agreed to donate one per cent of their November 2015 salaries to the IDPs in the country as part of the Union's humanitarian assistance.

The ASUU Vice-Chairman said that the donation was not a one-man idea but a unanimous decision of all the members of the Union at the University “to assist those afflicted due to the Boko Haram insurgence”.

Dr. Ajibade said, “On October 27 this year, we met at our congress and asked ourselves what can we do to assist the IDPs, those children without fathers and mothers, those women without husbands, and on that premise, we asked ourselves that can we donate one per cent of our November salaries for the IDP and unanimously, it was adopted. That was how we harvested the N3, 078, 092.91 we are donating today.”

Pointing out that “this is not the first time the ASUU of the University of Ilorin will be doing this”, the ASUU leader disclosed that “in 2011 during the Tsunami earthquake in Haiti that rendered so many homeless, we donated one per cent of our salaries to the victims. But today’s donation is very significant to us. It is not from our check-off dues”.

On what the Union has done in the past in terms of community services, the Vice-Chairman said that Unilorin ASUU is the first to build students' hostel, adding that it has also built a shopping mall for the use of the people of the University community.

Receiving the cheque on behalf of the IDPs, the Director General, FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Abuja, Mallam Abbas Idriss, commended the ASUU, for coming all the way from Ilorin “to identify with us and the IDPs within the FCT”, adding, “It is indeed a big effort from your own end to have taken that step and it is really gratifying to hear that Unilorin ASUU is really concerned about the IDPs and have taken it upon themselves to donate one per cent of their November, 2015 salaries to these unfortunate people.”

Mallam Abbas said that the Agency always welcomes humanitarian efforts from members of the public towards making life a little more bearable for the IDPs, adding that FEMA, Abuja, is grateful for the support from the academic staff of the University of Ilorin.

He said, “These internally displaced persons were like us before but they were displaced from their homes for no fault of theirs and today they lack so many things but we are happy with this kind of support that we are receiving today from the academic staff of the University of Ilorin.”

The FEMA boss stated further, “I want to report that this is the first of its kind from the Nigerian universities and I am calling on other universities to emulate this gesture from the Unilorin ASUU. You don't have to bring money, you can bring clothes and medications; they are going to be useful for these people.”

Promising that the money donated by the Unilorin ASUU will be judiciously used, Mallam Abbas said, “We are really very grateful and hope you will convey our appreciation to the entire academic community of the University of Ilorin. Let me also assure you that we are going to give you the full account of the way the money is spent at the end.”

In her own remarks, the Head of Relief and Rehabilitation at FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Abuja, Mrs. Rachael Alikali, appreciated the wonderful gesture from the University of Ilorin ASUU and prayed that God would bless and replenish members of the Union abundantly.