By Ayo Kehinde
Thousands of Nigerian students remain stranded due to an ongoing feud between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) which forced shut public universities in the country since February 14.
Reports that the daughter of the current President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in Nigeria, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke recently graduated from the University of Chicago in the United States of America (USA), has been proved to be false and a deliberate attempt to blackmail the union to forgo the 7-month-old strike
The report that is now trending on social media emanated from a Facebook post published by one Ekiti Princess, who alleged that Julianah Chedera Victor Osodeke, supposedly a 21-year-old daughter of the ASUU President recently graduated from the foreign university.
According to her post read: “FELICITATIONS: On behalf of my two daughters, who are part of the 5Million Nigeria University Students, let me congratulate Miss (21) Julianah Chidera Osodeke, the beautiful daughter of Comrade Dr Emmanuel Osodeke, who recently graduated from The University of Chicago, Illinois US. We want to thank God and appreciate your daddy for his efforts at sending you to the United State for speedy completion of your course of study.
“We equally use this opportunity to thank your Dad for his efforts and ruggedness on the ongoing ASUU National strike especially for keeping us at home with our parents for the last seven months for obvious reasons (salary increase). We appreciate you, sir. May the Lord reward you accordingly”.
In his reaction, a professor at the University of Uyo, Professor Joseph Ushie, who knows the ASUU president very well, said the story was concocted by government apologists and a disgrace to its purveyor as Prof Osedeke has only male children, in the first place.
He said, “There have been two diametrically opposed attitudes towards the present crisis in the Nigerian university system. While ASUU is doggedly fighting for the survival of the system on which the livelihood of its members depends believing that on the same system rests the future of millions of Nigerian children today and tomorrow, the Government and its rented supporters see the crisis as an ego contest since the continued opulence of some members of Government depends on such a gold mine as the IPPIS.
“In their desperation, the Government and its supporters routinely resort to falsehood and deliberate misinformation of the public for want of credible facts to support their position. But the very interesting thing is that each and every big lie of theirs brings them big shame. The latest of these is the picture of a supposed 21-old daughter of the ASUU President, Juliana Chidera Victor Osodeke, who is said to have recently graduated from The University of Chicago, Illinois, United States.
“But, interestingly, this huge falsehood has crash-landed the big liars in a big pit: ASUU President has no female child. All his children are males, and none of these is schooling, or has schooled at the said university! This shows how little the attackers of ASUU know about the Union, let alone about what the Union is battling for. But ASUU is not surprised; it’s in the nature of mercenaries to fight haphazardly. Nigerians, shine your eyes! They’ll bring up more lies and the lies will keep bringing them more shame.
However, authentic media checks have revealed that, in addition to Prof Ushie’s revelationn that the ASUU president has only male children, the “first single photo of the graduating student, purported to be Juilanah, is that of another Nigerian, Anita Osariemen Omonuwa, from Edo-state, who became the first black woman to graduate from the University of Reading in the UK with a first-class degree.
“The photo matched another photo on myschoolgist.com where the story about Anita was published in 2014. She also bagged two other first-class degrees from the University of Birmingham, UK (LLM), and the Nigerian Law School (BL).
On Anita Osariemen Omonuwa
“Another photo in the collage, to the bottom left, was also spotted on the Obama Foundation Scholars website and further checks revealed that the 536th Convocation of the University of Chicago during which degrees were officially conferred to all graduates, was held about three months ago on June 4.”
