The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ASUU

  • Sounding the death knell (2)

    If you’ve followed ASUU strike since 1999 when the democratic dispensation began you’ll notice one trajectory: ASUU and government relation is like a relay race; one regime passes the baton to the other without resolving the underlying reasons for the strike. At times, emotions are brought to bear by appealing to striking lectures to “take the interests of the students into consideration” and call off their strike.

    The crises in the system are quite glaring. Already the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian University (SSANU) and the Non Academic Staff Union (NASU) are already waiting “patiently” in the wings for the government to be done with ASUU before they put their broth on the table. As we grapple with some of the challenges the strike has thrown up, former president Olusegun Obasanjo blamed the then government of late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua for agreeing to certain demands made by ASUU.

    OBJ, who spoke at a book launch in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, noted that the administration should not have allowed itself to be stampeded into signing agreements without full consultations. Equally too, Former Minister of Education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, said last week that the demands by the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were unrealistic in light of the economic situation in Nigeria. She called for a structural and policy change which will allow public and private investments to be integrated into the university system.

    Beyond these, is there really a future for Nigerian public universities or are we going to witness a full system meltdown? My major grouse is that it appears no one really cares about sustainable solutions that ensure there is no repeat of the same situation over and over again. It does not take a soothsayer to see that each government – for mainly political exigencies – deals with ASUU in a way that ensures ASUU returns to the classrooms, knowing fully well that the underlying problem of why ASUU goes on strike remains perpetually unresolved.

    What this means in simple terms is that we are not going to fix our universities and the recurrent ASUU challenge will subsists as in the past. The challenges of our universities, and indeed other tertiary institutions, are not that these challenges exist; it is that these challenges more or less remain the same over decades.

    Emotions aside, Dr. Ezekwesili, in her comments about the strike raised some salient issues that I believe should be looked into. “Money,” she stated, “is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key. There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding. You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period.

    I have spoken to university administrators who are very critical of ASUU even though they cannot publicly express their views like Obasanjo and Ezekwesili did. Since they’re in the system they feel ASUU members should take mirrors and look at themselves intently and put their house in order, especially in the area of attitude to work. One told me point blank that for some of them, the university is simply a launch pad for their various consultancies, relegating research – which should be their primary concern – to the background.

    This notwithstanding, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFUND admitted that there were some lapses on the part of government and promised that the strike would be called off this  week, as the sum of N53 billion would be released to the union.

    The issue of accountability was raised at that hearing. “ASUU  asked for N23 billion to be paid, but we said the condition for getting the N23 billion  was for them to account for the N30 billion they had taken and they were not able to account for it. The Minister of Finance undertook to do the audit from the ministry and we agreed that the result would be known in six months. During the six months, government undertook to be paying ASUU N1.5 billion each month.”

    I find it quite disturbing that ASUU needed to be asked to account for the money previously collected before doing so. I believe firmly that a union attuned to the values of accountability and transparency would not have needed to be told to do the right thing. But even more fundamentally, I fail to see how meeting ASUU’s immediate demands can be a realistic solution in the long run. From an economic standpoint: will the economy, in its present state, be able to support ASUU’s demands, let alone the needs of the education sector?

    In all these, one fact remains; our leaders, including even some of the privileged lecturers have their children in schools everywhere but public schools where they are exposed to some of the menace that are too well known to detain us here. Like with most of the challenges Nigeria has had to deal with over the course of almost its entire Independent existence, part of the problem is centralisation and control by the Federal Government. The  structure does not work and we already know that. What we probably aren’t so sure of is how to move forward.

    I was at the unveiling of the board of trustees of a private university recently and what I witnessed was quite instructive. The founder of the university picked a prominent ex banker as the pro chancellor. The banker was able to pull his colleagues – and others from corporate Nigeria – who donated, or pledged resources to the university. They came up with several initiatives, including giving their time and experience to ensure the university succeeds. Some even promised to lecture from time to time and impart the knowledge they have gathered over the years.

    Can this happen in our public universities? I’m afraid not. One of the major problems for us in the country is that we are often scared of new things. Why can’t we explore the option of running our universities as Trusts? Government should simply give grants. Trustees should include accomplished private sector achievers that can help raise money and endowments for the University. They will also check fraud by the VCs, which – rather unfortunately – is becoming very rampant. If I get my facts correct, at least six former or current Vice Chancellors are under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

    I’m afraid it will be difficult to pull the issue of Trusts through. The reason is clear: those that benefit from a decadent and porous system of waste and lack of accountability will do everything possible to ensure it never sees the light of day. A university don wrote an op-ed in several newspapers where he outlined how funds are siphoned through endless and unnecessary meetings and endeavours that add little or nothing to the development of the university system.

    It is disheartening and painful to note that university administration has since been taken by the general Nigerian malaise; corruption. If my facts are accurate, the quantum of ASUU’s claim is put at about N1.2 Trillion. In 2009 when this was agreed, this was about 25% of the Budget. Someone was illogical enough to sign this on behalf of government. To move forward, there may be a need to overhaul the system altogether. This reset of the system could even cost an entire academic year but if it fixes this particular problem permanently, it would be a very useful sacrifice to make for the sake of the future.

    The government needs to cut a deal with ASUU but must think sustainability when going to the table. A recent news report has the current Education minister Adamu Adamu saying the ASUU strike will be over in a matter of days. This simply means that we are about to revisit the old playbook which will result in another strike after some time. Rather, what is needed is an overhaul this system.

     

  • Reading through ASUU’s prism

    Ayayi was in a sitting posture with an obvious injury on the upper part of his left hand and a mass of blood on his chest within the region of his heart. He was gasping for breath, and then the breathing appeared to stop…” – Anthony Monye-Emina

    The year was probably 1987. The doors of the Volkswagen beetle slammed shut. The young men who had arrived in the compound scurried in all directions. Shortly after, a hush fell on the compound, a military jeep pulled over at the same compound. About six men jumped down. The ground shook beneath them. Their commander was a handsome lieutenant. He was neatly dressed and bulky. He ordered the soldiers to check the Volkswagen for the “idiots…”

    In those days, lecturers’ strikes could only be compared to James Bond’s movies. The young men who had run out of the Volkswagen were lecturers from different universities around the country. At least one of them was from the University of Ibadan (UI). They had gone to the court to get an order. The military had pursued them into the court compound. The judge had threatened sanctions against the military men not to touch the young lecturers within the court premises.

    Of course, they were allowed to leave the court premises but were not allowed to roam freely. The beetle car probably chose to go through Polytechnic Ibadan compound to the premier university. The lecturers knew their route and their point of rendezvous. If those soldiers got you, you would be taken to Lagos and tortured. If any National Executive Council member of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were arrested by the police or military in the 1990s, there were standby replacements for them. Struggle continues.

    In those days when National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) was still an intellectual and functional movement, students always supported the ASUU struggles. Even when NANS refuses to join the action, it does not stupidly denounce it. It happens now that NANS has been compromised terribly. Local students’ unions would usually protest the arrest of ASUU members. Reactionary Vice-Chancellors usually attacked progressive ASUU lecturers in those days.

    In 1987 at the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Festus Ojeaga Ikhuoria Iyayi was sacked. He had a Doctorate degree in Business Administration. He was ASUU National President when he was relieved of his job. The directive had come from General Ibrahim Babangida. Then, the UNIBEN was still basking in the euphoria of having the first female VC.

    In my little understanding, I never believed that the reason the lecturers would send the government off balance would be the issue of salaries alone. Since 1992 till date, the demands of ASUU has shown greater concern for students and the education sector more than just the issue of welfare of its members. The demands have ranged from poor funding of education, poor facilities in universities, privatisation and greater involvement of students in the decision making process and so on. All of these are explained in a larger scope when investigated. The point is, if the Nigerian government would be reasonable enough to at least consider the future and respond to some of these demands.

    The claim as usual is no money. Of course, no money to build the education system but there is abundant funds for looting and misappropriation. Then, they tell us to pay more for acquiring education, so that the quality can improve. Later, nothing changes.

    The late Prof Festus Iyayi died in the struggle to free our education from the agents of backwardness. He was on his way to Kano where a National Executive Committee meeting was to hold. The meeting was meant to discuss how to resolve the then strike. There had been a congress in Benin before he embarked on the journey began. The bus conveying Iyayi and other ASUU officials had reached the dusty plains of Banda village near Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. Then, siren blared endlessly, signalling the coming of the convoy of the then Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada. The convoy was reputed to have been consistently reckless. Before Iyayi’s death, it had been reported on the news even in Ibadan that that convoy was usually recklessly and dangerously without respect for other road users.

    The last of the fleet of vehicles on the convoy veered off its lane and faced the bus conveying Iyayi and others.

    The then ASUU chairman at UNIBEN, Anthony Monye-Emina, who was with Iyayi, recalled in The National Scholar of April 2014 in Page 62 and 63: “I asked the driver to watch the vehicle which kept coming at us even when the driver made to leave the road. At a point I thought it was a suicide attack…[the] pick-up truck… ram[med] into our bus on the side with a big bang causing it to somersault three times and then stood upright… Comrade Festus Iyayi was in a sitting posture with an obvious injury on the upper part of his left hand and a mass of blood on his chest within the region of his heart. He was gasping for breath, and then the breathing appeared to stop. I called several times but, he did not respond.”

    We must all understand the legitimacy of ASUU demands and the union’s patience. In his private discussion with this writer, Prof Abiodun Ogunyemi said it took 50 letters written between 2009 and 2013, warning strikes and over 200 meetings to get the government renegotiate the 2001 Agreement.

    There has been mass exodus of seasoned academics to Europe and America. We wonder why there is little meaningful change in our curriculum. The education system is rigid and no true lecturer is happy with the situation of things.

    The state of facilities for research, teaching and learning is another source of disagreement with the government.

    Going by the sarcastic words of Irish playwright, Bernard Shaw, it is only a reasonable man that will adapt himself to the world. Unreasonable fellow will persist in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

    The statement is a message for those whose sole reason for being a lecturer is for survival and not for changing the education system. If things must change in Nigeria education sector, government must listen to the lecturers and accede to their demands. Without cooperating with ASUU, things may go worse for the education system.

     

    Aderemi is a student of the University of Ibadan (UI)

     

  • Our Girls; ASUU, N400B+;

    Our Girls; ASUU, N400B+;

    Our Girls are still missing since April 15, 2014. Pray and work.

    We will discuss three great events: Government  apology to ASUU and by extension to youths; the N400b corruption price tag quantified by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Buhari’s back.

    Time is something this government does not have on its side. Time is running out for this government to point to landmarks before the 2019 election. Incomprehensibly, National Assembly (NASS) has succeeded in scuttling the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway completion date even though the project financiers are both major government parties -PDP and APC – and hurts and hinders millions of lives daily and is of huge economic importance even to no road users.

    ‘The road is a major business entity’ to Nigerians whether they use the road or just receive goods and services from those actually on it!  Government should finance the entire road surface and then leave the cement medians to another year. In addition, government must get $40-50b in CBN foreign reserves before 2019 to ensure success of the Buhari-driven effort to return the naira to pre 2015 level of at least N150:$1 to empower Nigerians and rubbish political speculators still with dollars to sell at N360:$1 to use, abuse, tarnish and terrorise the 2019 electorate. Of course NASS, states and LGAs with squabble with the federal government over ownership of the whistle-blown recovered funds but these determinations must be made quickly so the funds do not stagnate like Abacha loot some still perhaps ‘Missing In Action’.

    Two kudos and Gbosas for the federal government. The ‘Apology to ASUU’ and ‘The NBS N400b/annum Corruption Report’ from the NBS are historical landmark human-face achievements of this government. Past governments hid their heads in the sand-sand denying obvious ugly truths.

    ‘We have failed ASUU’ is probably the greatest statement coming from a serving government ever. Hurray!! Nigeria has actually failed ASUU for the last 35 years. By extension, serial governments starting with the debacle of the anti-education Babangida’s murder of education ‘presumably ‘ on IMFs advice collapsed the performance of university products –the much abused youth of Nigeria during the same time frame!

    ASUU has been fighting student cults and civil servants and politicians for improved conditions and quality of undergraduate students, the lecture room, laboratory, library, ‘character and learning’, and a better recognition of the university teacher in the financial calculations of the salary structure as compared to selfish NASS and the Civil Service for 30+ years. If, with ASUU’s mostly painful session-losing strikes and struggles, our tertiary system is still so poor compared on International University Ranking in Africa and Worldwide, imagine if ASUU had ‘hands off’ the strategy forcing improvements on a greedy political system so greedy that it still despises sharing the nation’s finances with even the needy in health and education. Without ASUU, it is unlikely that any university would today be any better than a glorified secondary school which themselves are saved by Old Students Associations. Politicians are ignorant of the needs for education. Do they still feel that an ignorant youth can be better manipulated by petty cash ‘stomach infrastructure’ election handouts than an educated youth population motivated by patriotism. Politics has spawned an army of angry youth, educated or ignorant.

    There is so much for politician and civil service to steal only because they steal from budgeted funds aimed at needy youth, patients and other citizens. Government is a megacorporation prepaid to deliver goods to fulfil and facilitate the aspirations and needs of customers, but which diverts the goods, abandoning the customers.  The acceptance of failure has a huge effect on the psyche of the Nigerian youth- the true victim of failure to meet ASUU’s legitimate demands.

    Governments have a chronic history of failure but cared less about admitting their guilt. Look at the abysmal education, health, roads, the railways, the power sector. “We have failed the nation’ is a statement we expect from most past presidents on the Council of State. They should resign in shame!

    So we all can quote that Nigeria’s businesses and families lose N400b to corruption annually without the added cost of compensation for corruption – buying, fueling and servicing millions of generators and okada for example. Where does NASS appear in the list even though during the period under study it had already been denied more traditional sources of graft. We only need to remember the stories from SEC, the oil baron’s money under the hat scandal, the stories of Ghana-Must-Go for third term ticket and other sickening sagas to get a morality that was NASS. According to experts at the ground breaking NBS, with UN and Presidential nod, Corruption adds N400b to cost of living and working of Nigerians and residents. Many years ago I calculated that police checkpoints mopped up from circulation, families and businesses N24-30b nationwide annually. This analysis did not include the activities of VIO, FRSC and state traffic militias or the other checkpoints by areas boys, ‘LGA’ staff to ‘legally illegally’ terrorise and rob travellers.

    And President Buhari is back in the saddle. Welcome!!! Hurray and thanks to VP Osinbajo for holding fort. We wish him well. Will he hit the ground running on national issues like saving the naira, restructuring, restructuring, restructuring, Fulani herdsmen’s terrorism, hate speech? We watch.

    NB: Nigerians discover a new generation of untainted ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’

    KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019.

     

  • ASUU: Time for truce

    SIR: Last week, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on an indefinite strike action.ASUU President, BiodunOgunyemi, said all means of negotiation had been exploited before the decision on indefinite strike action was reached.

    The grouse of the university teachers include,inability of the federal government to implement some of the issues contained in a 2009 agreement it had with ASUU as well as payments of earned allowances.

    The lecturers also complained of poor funding of universities, part-payment of salaries of lecturers and the kidnap of two lecturers of the University of Maiduguri by the Boko Haram.

    For the umpteenth time, our education sector has been thrown into another avoidable industrial action. Of course, Nigerians have condemned the levity with which federal government handled the numerous agreements reached with the union. This has engendered a lack of trust and confidence of the scholars in the government. This latest strike action hasonce again, disrupted the academic calendar of public universities.

    With thestrike, final year students who are supposed to graduate this year may not be able to do so. The ripple effect of this is that with delayed graduation, medical students who should go for their housemanship; law students who should go for their law school programme and the generality of other students who should be mobilised for their mandatory one-year national service scheme would also have theirs postponed.In the long run, it is the students’ destinies that are generally being manipulated with these endless industrial actions.

    Many of these students would now have time to fully engage in social vices such as prostitution, cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery, fraud and many other vices to while away time as well as make illicit money.The disruption of studies will also have negative psychological impact on them. By the time the strike is over, many of the students would most likely have forgotten what they were taught before the unwarranted break.

    Is this how we want to continue to treat the future leaders?

    My appeal to federal government is to implement the 2009 agreement. Government should also quickly consider the issues of poor funding of universities, part-payment of salaries of lecturers and move swiftly to rescue the kidnapped lecturers of the University of Maiduguri by the Boko Haram. Nigeria’s education sector needs to be properly funded given the primacy of the sector in human capital development.

    May I alsoappeal to members of ASUU to soft pedal on their demands, particularly the issue of earned allowances. Asking for the payments during recession does not seem right.The union should give the government more time, and the benefit of the doubt by going back to work in the interest of their suffering students. Let’s save our tottering education sector from the total collapse.

     

    • Gbenga Odunsi,

    Adeboyeolugbenga70@gmail.com,

  • Strike: ASUU’s demands unrealistic-Ezekwesili

    Strike: ASUU’s demands unrealistic-Ezekwesili

    A former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, on Sunday said that the demands by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) were unrealistic in light of the current economic situation in Nigeria.

    Ezekwesili said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan while reacting to the ongoing strike embarked upon by the union.

    The former minster said that lasting solution to the crisis bedevilling the education sector could only be found from strong analysis of the issues raised by ASUU and evidenced based policies.

    “Money is not limitless and yet everyone must acknowledge that investment in education is crucial and it is key.

    “There are, however, some fundamental reforms that the sector needs in order to ensure that it is not about the size of the funding but about the productivity of the funding.

    “You cannot simply express a desire, it must be founded on reality and that means you must know what can be achieved within a given period,” she said.

    According to her, a structural and policy change which allows public and private investments should be integrated into the university system.

    “If you remember, the ASUU negotiation started in 2007 when I was the Minister of Education and we constituted a government negotiation team, led by the late Gamaliel Onosode,

    “Even though that period was short, one of the major issues for me was for us to make sure that we were being evidenced based in the way we were solving the problem,

    “We considered issues like the existing model in countries similar to us in emerging economies,’’ she said.

    The former minister said the team also considered what could be done by the public and private sectors about university funding among others.

    “Those are the kinds of evidence that we had and on the basis of which we hinged our negotiation at that time,

    “It was a very short period and then we had to leave and the next government that took over had to continue.

    “I do not know the basis of the final agreement they reached with ASSUU, but if it was not anchored on analytical evidence, I am not surprised that there has been inability to implement it.”

    Ezekwesili urged both the Federal Government and ASUU to return to the negotiating table and work on the basis of analysis and evidence to find lasting solution to the dispute.

    NAN reports that ASUU on Aug. 14, embarked on an indefinite strike to press home its demands for the implementation of an agreement signed between it and the Federal Government on condition of service.

    ASUU is also asking for increased funding of university, autonomy of the institution and academic freedom. (NAN)

  • Saraki running Otuoke varsity like private business, ASUU, others allege

    The Joint Action Committee of the Federal University, Otuoke, (FUO) Bayelsa State, has accused chairperson of the school’s Governing Council, Senator Gbemisola Saraki, of running the university like her private business.

    Rising from their emergency meeting in Otuoke yesterday, the unions said it was unacceptable for Saraki to schedule a meeting of the council in Abuja on Monday instead of holding it in Otuoke, the university’s campus.

    The JAC consists of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (SST) and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU).

    The university workers said the proposed Abuja meeting was illegal and violated the ultimatum served by the unions the university’s council should stop holding their meetings outside Otuoke.

    They wondered why Saraki, who is also the institution’s Pro-Chancellor, planned to exclude internal members of the council in the proposed meeting against the law governing the university.

    The unions maintained that any such council meeting purportedly on the exclusion of the internal members of council was illegal.

    The unions said: “The Chairperson, Gbemisola Saraki, has excluded all internal council members who were duly elected by Senate and Congregation to represent the interest of these two statutory bodies.

    ‘’The University Councils are constituted purely on interests and representations in accordance with the law establishing them and the powers of Council and all other organs of the University are derived from this law.

    ‘’The Federal University Otuoke Act, 2015 makes specific provisions for the composition and tenure of members, meetings, duties and any other related issue (s).

    ‘’The third schedule article 1(2) made explicit provisions for the tenure of the members representing public interests, University Senate and the University Congregation.

    ‘’For the avoidance of doubt, the tenure of Internal Council members as provided in Federal University Otuoke Act, 2015 is four years. The members representing Senate and Congregation in Federal University, Otuoke, were elected effective August 1, 2015.’’

    The workers said the university council should be held on the university’s campus and council meeting must be inclusive to represent the interest of the university community.

  • ASUU may end strike within one week – Minister

    ASUU may end strike within one week – Minister

    The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on Thursday said ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may be called off within one week.

    The minister stated this at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund in Abuja.

    He said that the ministry and other major stakeholders were already holding meetings with the union to resolve some of the issues that led to the strike.

    He assured that with the level of progress made in the negotiation, there was hope that students and lecturers would return to classes within one week.

    “The issue of renegotiation is already going on. I have already written a letter formalising the meeting I had with the union, because I went alone to face them and I wrote a letter which I gave them yesterday.

    “From the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike will be called off within a week, maximum,’’ he said.

    Adamu said while explaining reasons for the strike, ASUU accused the Federal Government of failing to keep its side of the agreement.

    He assured that the Ministry of Finance had agreed to do the needful with regard to releasing funds as soon as possible.

    “The union had asked for N23 billion to be paid.

    `We said the condition for that N23 billion to be released was for them to account for the N30 billion they had taken which is a total of N53 billion and they were not able to account for it.

    “The Minister of Finance then undertook to do the audit from the ministry and we agreed that the result will be known within six months.

    “The Federal Government undertook to be paying them N1.5 billion each month during the time they are waiting for the outcome of the audit.

    “Their grouse now is that the forensic audit promised by the minister of finance has not been done and the money promised has not been paid.

    “So, at our meeting two days ago, we agreed that we will pay them and do forensic audit on the entire N53 billion.

    “I wrote to the minister and she has already approved it and this money will be paid; probably on Monday, they will be able to receive the cheque,’’ he said.

    Adamu, however, stated that his ministry did not agree on some issues during the meeting with the union.

    He said, “there are other issues which we did not agree on and that is their request to be taken out of Treasury Single Account(TSA).

    “I told them that it is not possible because this is a new policy and government is not going to change it for anyone.

    “Concerning their salary shortfall, we said a lot of the reasons spring from what they are doing wrong.

    “They do a lot of employment without proper authority.

    “For instance, a university can decide to recruit 50 people and IPPIS is not aware. So, we insisted that institutions must stop doing that and they accepted.

    “There is also the issue of the registration of their pension commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with PENCOM and I believe they will also be able to solve the problem within a week.’’

    The Chairman of the senate committee, Sen. Barau Jibrin, said the committee was impressed with the briefing by the minister on the matter.

    He explained that the seriousness of the issue made the committee members to cut short their recess, and said that from the assurance given by the minister, students and lecturers would return to school shortly.

    Jibrin said, “we hope the proposal sent to ASUU by the minister will be accepted.

    “On our part, with regard to getting some of the issues captured in the budget, we will do our best to actualize it.’’

  • Fed Govt broke promise to ASUU, says minister

    Fed Govt broke promise to ASUU, says minister

    The Federal Government  yesterday admitted failing to keep some of its promises to university lecturers but said it would work hard to get them to suspend the strike declared on Sunday by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    It reiterated that ASUU did not follow due process before embarking on the strike.

    Minister of Education Adamu Adamu, who spoke with reporters at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting, said: “Very sad that I am here and ASUU is on strike. Late last year, we had a meeting because ASUU gave one week notice of strike and we were able to work out some agreement. I must confess government has not fulfilled its part of the bargain, even though we are unhappy that ASUU went on this strike without following due process and giving us good notice. We realised that we promised something and we didn’t fulfill it.

    “I hope I will be meeting them later today or tomorrow and I’m sure we will be able to reach some agreement so that the strike will be called off as soon as possible.

    “I’m sure you are aware of the issues we agreed on. There is the issue of re-negotiation, which is the only one they agreed government has done what it promised because we set up the re-negotiation team and negotiation is already ongoing.

    “There is the issue of Earned Allowances and I think because of some miscommunication what we promised could not be done, but I’m assuring ASUU and the whole nation that this is going to be done.

    “There is the issue of registration for Nigerian Universities Pension Commission. I think that one there are few issues that need to be sorted out with the Nigerian Pension Commission, I believe there will be no problem with that.

    “The issue of their staff school which I think the court has given them verdict to go ahead with it. They have requested that they should be allowed to stay off TSA and I think government will not do this but there are some peculiar funds in the university, like endowment, which are monies kept and all the interest they generate, prizes and so on are given.

    “Government will exempt that one only, but universities in spite of the peculiarities, they just must log on. I hope later on when I meet them today there will be total agreement.”

    Adamu said ASUU should give account of the funds it got for the Earned Allowances before more payment can be made. The government released N30 billion in 2010.

    Adamu said the government had the money to pay the balance of N23b after a forensic audit of the N30b released earlier.

    Asked to reconcile the statement  he made during the last dispensation about ASUU strike, when he said “so, instead of hectoring ASUU to call off its strike, the nation should be praying for more of its kind in other sectors of the economy,” the minister said that was still his position.

    He said if ASUU had not forced former President Goodluck Jonathan, he would not have created the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), without which, he said, the university system would have collapsed.

    The minister said: “That is still my view. I believe ASUU is composed of patriotic people, very responsible.

    “If I can look at what their struggle is, they forced the then government to create TETFund and today, without TETFund, the university system would have collapsed.

    “I’m not supporting ASUU; I’m supporting what is good. If it is something bad, I will condemn it,” he added

    But ASUU President Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi faulted the government’s claim that the union did not give a notice of strike.

    Prof. Ogunyemi said the union wrote to Minister of Labour Dr Chris Ngige about the impending strike last month.

    “What the Labour Minister said I don’t agree with it because we only resumed an action we suspended.  We showed him a letter and he could not dismiss it.  We sent the letter around July 8 or 10.  I will confirm the date,” he said.

    On Dr Wale Babalakin’s claim that the union acted in bad faith by calling the strike, Ogunyemi said it was about issues outside Babalakin’s mandate, explaining that he (Babalakin) was a negotiator, not an implementer.

    He said: “The issues Babalakin is handling are issues that cover areas we need to redefine.

    We have specific issues we have engaged the government on, which it has refused to implement – issues like the unilateral removal of funding for staff schools of federal universities; payment of reduced salaries – we did not bargain for salary cuts; failure to facilitate the release of the licence of the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO); failure to issue circular for professors who have spent at least 30 years in the university to retire with their salaries for life.

    “Babalakin is mixing up negotiation with implementation.  If government wants to make Babalakin head of the Implementation panel, it should let us know.”

    Ogunyemi said the union was still talking with the government to resolve the issues that led to the strike

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions, Senator Jibrin Barau, yesterday expressed shock that ASUU went on strike.

    Barau said the Senate was already handling their grievances and that it was not expected that they should go on strike now.

  • Appeal to ASUU

    Appeal to ASUU

    Sir: I can remember vividly that 2009 was the last time the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) hit the war path with an indefinite strike. However the drumbeats of war have been reverberating since this regime came to power.

    In August 2016 and January 2017, warning strikes were launched as the first salvos of warning shots across the bow of the citadels of learning. And the grouse of the lecturers is palpable as “change” has robbed the nation’s higher institutions of their last vestigial remnants of glory.

    Lecturers have been on half pay since APC came to power. One wonders if this is a deliberate punishment or an act of negligence, but this shows the premium the regime places on higher learning. Investment into the nation’s educational citadels has not been forthcoming.

    Billions have been poured down the drain pipe of looking for oil in the North with nothing to show for it, when only a fraction of that amount could have revamped the nation’s universities.

    And the regime cannot claim that there is no money. Besides what have they done with all the billions they claim to recover every day from looters?

    Boko Haram is running around causing havoc because the Northern elite denied the vast majority of its people qualitative higher education. One can imagine the devastation across the land if another protracted ASUU strike ensues. Female students may embrace full time prostitution while their male counterparts may become armed robbers and kidnappers after all, an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

    One can only implore ASUU to temper justice with mercy. Please have mercy on the youths of the land. They are the grass that will suffer when the two elephants of ASUU and the federal government start fighting. To open conflict with the administration will only attract the usual propaganda that ASUU is now a tool of the opposition PDP and in a flash the police and

    DSS will be unleashed to give striking lecturers the Charly Boy VIP treatment.

    Better for everyone including lecturers to bear the hardship in silence and guard their voter’s card jealously.

    2019 General Elections is just 16 months away and that’s the ideal platform to vent all anger at this regime. But please ASUU half the indefinite strike. The nation will definitely collapse if you do.

     

    • Usman Mohammed,

    Chenche House,

    Lapai-Niger State.