The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on
Monday vowed to continue on their 114-day-old strike unless the
government honoured the 2009 agreement it entered with the union.
The Chairman of ASUU at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Prof.
Adegbola Akinola, and his University of Ibadan chapter counterpart, Dr.
Olusegun Ajiboye, said President Goodluck Jonathan did not need to plead
with the lecturers to end the strike.
Akinola told journalists during a rally staged by members of the union
in Ile-Ife on Monday, that 'ASUU does not need any plea from Mr.
President. We are not asking for impossible things. The Federal
Government reached an agreement with us and we are asking them to honour
it. It is so simple.'
'Government should be honourable. Is it honourable not to honour an
agreement? Certainly no. The Federal Government should not allow the
public universities to continue to degenerate. Posterity will not
forgive us if we allow public universities to totally collapse.
'Our country has the resources to honour the agreement but education is not given priority.
'We won't allow public universities to be destroyed. That is why they
are establishing private universities all over the country with the
nation's money. Except those owned by the missionaries, tell me which of
the private universities was not established with the nation's
resources?'
Akinola said that infrastructure were decaying in public universities because of the neglect they had suffered.
He explained that the strike was not about members of the union but a means to force the government to do the right things.
The ASUU chief warned that children from poor homes might no longer
have access to university education if the union should succumb to the
blackmail being employed against it by the government.
Also Ajiboye said at a town hall meeting and presentation of the
National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy assessment report to
clerics , civil society, labour and students at the Trenchard Hall, UI
on Monday, that Jonathan's plea would not make ASUU end the strike.
He said, 'Will the President be quiet if his children are in one of our
public institutions and be at home for four months? Does he care about
the future of the country while the children of the masses in public
institutions have been asking their leader to be more sensitive and
patriotic enough to public institutions?
'How many years of appeal will make the President implement a
four-year-old agreement? The truth is that we are tired of appeals. We
need action .
'In ASUU, our belief is that today's event will shape the future. We
cannot live on appeal while the children of the rich use public funds
to study abroad and even make use of government scholarship scheme.'
However, about 200 heavily armed policemen on Monday stopped members of
ASUU from carrying out an enlightenment walk on the strike in
Calabar, Cross River State.
The walk was organised by the University of Calabar and Cross River State University of Technology branches of ASUU.
It was to take off from the UNICAL gate at 7am through some streets of
Calabar, but the policemen ensured the union members did not leave the
gate of the institution.
They said they were acting on 'orders from above.'
The Chairman ASUU, UNICAL branch, Dr. James Okpiliya, said, 'Our union
is law- abiding. We wrote to the police and other security agencies on
our intention of walking the streets in pursuance of our cause to put
the records straight.
'Many groups have been walking the streets giving people the wrong
impression about the situation. We just want to put the records
straight. The police are telling us that they have orders from above not
let us walk the streets of Calabar. It is a shame. You can all see the
hypocrisy of government.
'They allowed youths and market women but they would not let us do the
same. We would remain resolute. No amount of provocation would stop us.
'We are not on strike because of our salaries. We are fighting for our
students and the terrible conditions of our universities. Most of our
science students do not know the difference between a Bunsen burner and a
stove. They don't even know the chemicals.
'The Tertiary Education Trust Fund today has become a main funding
source of our universities, but this is not to be so. TETFUND is only an
intervention agency. Government has bailed out banks and even
Nollywood, but not our universities.
'The strike would continue as long as the government remains adamant.
The President said after all, the strike in Ghana lasted two years; so
that means this one could continue even up to five years.'
The Chairman of ASUU, CRUTECH branch, Dr Nsing Ogar, said the Federal Government must honour the 2009 agreement.
But university administrators in the country on Monday expressed
concern over the strike and appealed to both ASUU and the Federal
Government to urgently reach a compromise on the issue.
The National President of the Association of Nigerian University
Professional Administrators, Mr. Samuel Mwansat, made this appeal at
the ongoing annual retreat of the National Council Members of the
association at the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagun in
Ogun State.
He stressed that the current disagreement between ASUU and the government required 'understanding.'
In Abuja, Okonjo-Iweala, accused ASUU of taking unionism to an all time low with its latest approach to the strike.
She accused the union of introducing politics to the strike
through the distribution of 'flyers riddled with lies in mosques in the
North.'
The minister, in a statement by her Special Adviser, Paul Nwabuikwu,
said contrary to the position being spread by ASUU, she had not taken a
'take-it-or-leave-it approach' to the face-off between the union and
government.
She claimed that it was ASUU that had taken such an approach,
saying no government had been as responsive to the demands of the
striking lecturers as that of Jonathan.
The statement reads in part, 'Contrary to some recent media reports,
the Federal Government has not adopted a take-it-or-leave-it approach in
its negotiations with ASUU. Rather, the approach is focused on positive
engagement and achieving sustainable solutions to the challenges facing
higher education in the country.
'That is why President Jonathan recently appealed to ASUU to respond to
government's positive steps by calling off its strike in the interest
of suffering students and parents.
'Despite this, for several days now, some elements in ASUU have been
distributing pamphlets and flyers with abusive and inflammatory messages
against Dr. Okonjo-Iweala in mosques and other places. This is taking
academic unionism to a new low and infusing it with unnecessary
politics. I am sure majority of ASUU members are not in support of
this.'
She said the government was working hard to seek practical and
sustainable solutions to the challenges facing higher education in the
country.
According to her, ' The President has made available N100bn a year in
the first instance to repair hostels, laboratories and classrooms and
other facilities in the universities.
'An offer of N30bn has also been made to ASUU towards the earned allowances of its members.'
#God's intervention we seek#
Oops! less i forget, those are diamonds and its 15-carat diamond ring designed Jeweler, Lorraine Schwartz.
2011 BBA winner, Karen Igho decides to attend an event with her friend, only to be denied access by the bouncer who asked her to identify herself.
