Daniel Efe/Port Harcourt.
A Lecturer with the University of Port Harcourt, UNIPORT, Dr Christian Emedolu is said to have collapsed when he heard government won’t pay salary arrears over the Seven months strike by the Academic Staff Union Universities, ASUU.
According to a statement by U.D. Chima, the Chairperson, ASUU, UNIPORT said Dr. Christian Emedolu’s death was facilitated by the hardship the Federal Government subjected the staff of public universities to in the last six months.
“The ruling class instead of being proactive to resolve the impasse between it and the University workers, resorted to deploying the malicious tool of hunger to force us back to work.
“I got the sad news regarding Dr Emedolu’s sickness very early yesterday morning and immediately contacted his very new and young wife who confirmed that he had stroke and had been in coma since last Saturday, 20th August, 2022.
She said further said ” I made every arrangement with the Head of Department,HOD of the Department of Philosophy, Dr Desmond Nbete, to ensure that he received adequate medical attention as we watched him lie helpless in his sickbed in a very bad and precarious situation.
She narrated how she contacted “Comrades at UPTH, Prof. Rosemary Ogu and Dr Ugochukwu Agi (Convener, ASUU UNIPORT Health Committee) who quickly met us at the Accident and Emergency Section of UPTH, made arrangements for him to be moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and for the necessary scan to be done. I had to leave UPTH at 9:50 am to preside over ASUU EXCO meeting at 10:00 am before Congress at 12 pm, following the recent attempt and drama by the Federal Government to jettison the recommendations of the Prof. Emeritus Briggs Committee on the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement”.
The ASUU Chairperson Mrs. Chima further said that at the Executive meeting, we deliberated on Dr. Emedolu’s health condition and quickly approved some fund in favour of the wife to handle the necessary expenditure, bearing in mind the current hardship inflicted on us by the Federal Government.
“My heart bled when Dr Emedolu’s wife informed me almost in tears that the health condition of her husband who was hypertensive, degenerated when he heard the news that lecturers will not be paid the six months salary arrrears”.
ASUU recalled that she was told that Dr. Emedolu was an outstanding scholar and a very dedicated staff but has been lost him and the wealth his knowledge partly because of the callousness of the ruling class.
Chima said she also told that Dr Emedolu would have been a Professor since October, 2020, if not for the delay in promotion process in the University system.
ASUU thanked the HoD of the Department of Philosophy, Dr Nbete for the palpable concern he showed and other comrades in UPTH, Prof Rosemary Ogu and Dr Ugochukwu Agi, for their quick response to the distress call and invaluable assistance to ensure that Dr Emedolu lived, though all are now in vain.
In consoling the family ASUU said “As we console his family and ourselves and wish his soul eternal rest, I must say without any iota of equivocation and prevarication, that our lives as Nigerians can be much better with good leadership at all levels.
“I’m just thinking of what will become of his very young wife. It’s well.”