The Nation Newspaper

Tag: ASUU

  • Governors’ convoys of death

    SIR: It has really become pitiable how our dear nation has been turned into a theatre of tragedies. It is more worrisome that the people whose statutory duties include the aversion of tragedies have become the harbingers of calamities and death. The rate at which the convoys of  public office holders and other such ‘powerful’ men get involved in road accidents, in recent times, has become a cause of worry. Innocent lives have been wasted while other road users have been endangered by the recklessness of many of our governors.  It is very unfortunate and unbelievable that one of the finest and very courageous university dons in Nigeria, Professor Festus Iyayi, a former president of the Academic Staff Union of  University (ASUU) ,would be killed in a road crash involving the convoy of Kogi state’s governor, Captain (rtd.)Idris Wada. It is of great concern that in less than a year, this is the second time Governor Wada’s convoy will be involved in ghastly crashes. In December 2012, while he was lucky to escape the crash along the Lokoja – Ajaokuta road with a fracture, his Aide-de-Camp, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) was not. He died on the spot.

    It is laughable that the only way some of our leaders could show that they have ‘arrived’ is to intimidate fellow citizens, ironically those who voted them into power,  with the ridiculous blare of siren. How else would you differentiate the common man from the ‘big man’ and this is the reason they would buy just two cars for almost half a billion naira in a country where just  N10,000 could restore the hope of many. That is the reason many of them arrogantly loot the public treasury to continue to intimidate and oppress the citizenry. They are completely detached from the people they govern, the same people they are to be role models to. This is not right.

    It has now become imperative for the political class and public office holders to begin to have a change of attitude. They must realise that the office they hold is in trust for the people they govern. The only way the public office holders will not incur the wrath of the people is only if they begin to have deep respect for the people. They must lead by example. They should emulate the governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, who has shunned the use of sirens and will never display bragging right of way with other road users.

    • Sola Ogunmosunle

    Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

     

     

  • Governor Suswan’s faux pas

    SIR: As chairman of the Needs Assessment Committee for Nigerian Universities, Governor Gabriel Suswan has full grasp of what is at stake as far as tertiary education in Nigeria is concerned. What is more, he has been a regular at negotiations between ASUU and the Federal Government and all the while, efforts at amicable resolution between both parties have failed repeatedly.

    However, it took the belated personal intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan’s meeting with the university lecturers to usher in what looks like a light at the end of a very long tunnel.

    But it appears that while Nigerians and indeed students who have been at the receiving end of the impasse await ASUU’s final decision, the Benue governor is not having any of it. He would rather sabotage reconciliatory efforts by casting aspersions on ASUU leadership.

    So it was that in an interview with ThisDay where the governor launched at the leadership of the union for politicizing the strike embarked upon by its members, claiming that ASUU was “determined that the Jonathan (PDP) government must be brought down…”

    The governor claimed the easiest way the union intends to dismantle the government was by “ensuring that every family is affected.” In his peculiar rationalization, he argued that “…they (ASUU) have no basis rather than playing politics with the strike and then holding the nation hostage and destroying the future of this country…”

    Pray, what could inflict any more pains on Nigerian families than the PDP-inspired economic sabotage? Granted that the consequences of the four-month hiatus in academic activities have been enormous, but it is nothing compared to the near-annihilation that Nigerians continue to suffer under the PDP hegemony.

    What is baffling is that by the governor’s illogic, what ASUU is doing amounts to a concerted effort to dismantle the present government, having already accused the leadership of the union of being infiltrated by opposition political parties. Merely reducing efforts towards rescuing Nigerian university system and education in general from well-document decay through better funding by the government to a fight against PDP or President Jonathan is the worst form of trivializing the importance of education. This is exactly what the governor is doing; expressing his distaste for better education for the ordinary Nigerian.

    To be sure, there is no law excluding members of ASUU or any Nigerian from belonging to political parties of choice or proscribing them from distinctive political leanings. For if the fear of opposition parties in ASUU would compel the Federal Government to implement an agreement it voluntarily entered and signed with university lecturers in 2009, the better. Ultimately, providing quality education is a paramount responsibility of government and to be alive to this constitutional responsibility, the government does not require, the nudging of the opposition, lecturers embarking on strike and being fought to a standstill.

    In a chest-thumbing moment of self-gratification, the governor reminded us how he slept for “just four days” in Benue out of three weeks “just to raise money for this need assessment.” Well done sir! We recognize your contributions and commitment to settling the dispute and the need to put education on the front burner. But the truth is that what will truly kick out any government and restore the bleak future of the nation is not ASUU strike; it is the exacting burden of hardship occasioned by alarming official graft being supervised by the PDP government.

     

    • Victor Mong

    Port Harcourt

     

  • Iyayi: ASUU bans UNILORIN procession

    Iyayi: ASUU bans UNILORIN procession

    The Academic Staff of Universities has placed ban on any procession in honour of the late President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi by the University of Ilorin.

    It described as illegal the planned procession by a faction of the union at the university led by Prof. Wahab Egbewole.

    ASUU said it is still mourning the death of its former president and has not approved any procession for its branches, bemoaning what it called “hypocrisy by the illegal and court sacked faction of Prof. Egbewole.”

    A procession notice had been signed by one Dr. Mrs. Binta O. Ibrahim belonging to the Egbewole faction of ASUU, intimating academic staff of planned procession in honour of the late ASUU president.

    The national leadership of ASUU said the union will certainly not stand for any attempt by the illegal group in the University of Ilorin to desecrate the memory of Prof. Iyayi

    In a release issued in Ibadan on Tuesday and signed by the Zonal Coordinators of Ilorin and Ibadan zones, Dr. Ayan Adeleke and Dr. Adesola Nasir respectively, titled: “DO NOT DESECRATE THE MEMORY OF OUR LATE PRESIDENT,” said “The attention of the union has been drawn to attempts by a group led by Prof. Wahab Egbewole of the University of Ilorin to desecrate the memory of the late former President of our union, Prof. Festus Iyayi, by issuing a notice of a so called “procession” for him at the University of Ilorin.”

    ASUU said Prof. Egbewole has been expelled from the union, while his group has been declared illegal by the National Industrial Court.

     

     

  • ‘I’m yet to recover from Iyayi’s death’

    ‘I’m yet to recover from Iyayi’s death’

    Dr Karo Ogbinaka, the chairman of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said he has not recovered from the shock of Prof. Festus Iyayi’s death.

    Iyayi, a former president of ASUU, died on November 12 in an accident near Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, on his way to Kano to attend a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the union.

    The meeting was expected to deliberate on the way forward for the four-month old strike of the union, after the Federal Government made a fresh offer.

    Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, Ogbinaka said: “I still cannot believe that Iyayi is dead because I was at the scene of the accident where it happened.

    “I witnessed the gory scene with blood stains all over the place as I can still remember struggling to assist our dear colleagues; believe me, it was too painful to see Iyayi die the way he did.

    “There was confusion in Kano and at the scene of the accident. Indeed it was a terrible and shocking sight to behold; we are indeed, deep in grief.”

    The union leader said the NEC suspended the Kano meeting to honour Prof Iyayi.

    According to him, the NEC members have been meeting with the family of the deceased to give him a befitting burial.

    He said: “We think we should give the NEC some time to get over the entire arrangements and then have some time to put themselves together before they start considering reconvening the postponed meeting.”

    Ogbinaka said it was only when the ASUU national executives were fully settled that they would assemble state executives for a decision on the protracted strike.

  • NMA seeks probe into Iyayi’s death

    NMA seeks probe into Iyayi’s death

    The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) yesterday urged the Federal Government to constitute an official enquiry into the accident in which a former National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Festus Iyayi, died.

    Besides, it called on the Federal Roads Safety Commission (FRSC) to end reckless driving by convoys on the nation’s roads.

    The President of the association, Dr Osahon Enabulele, spoke in Benin, the Edo State capital, after he led a delegation of the members to the family of the late Iyayi.

    Other leaders of the association with Enabulele included the Secretary-General, Dr Akpufuoma Pemu; the state Chairman, Dr Emmanuel Ighodaro and a former NMA President, Dr Dominic Osaghae.

    Enabulele said: “While we mourn the extremely sad and tragic death of this dogged and courageous fighter for socio-economic and political justice in Nigeria and an unrepentant crusader for the restoration of standards and excellence in university education, we are pained that his death followed another despicable act of recklessness and impunity by executive convoys.

    “The NMA, therefore, calls on the Federal Government to institute an urgent official enquiry into the circumstances that led to Prof. Iyayi’s death, while machinery is urgently put in motion by the FRSC to end the recklessness of executive convoys, whose intolerable impunity has sent many innocent and productive Nigerians to their early graves.”

    The union leader also urged the government to fast-track the repairs and dualisation of the Abuja-Lokoja-Benin highway

    He said: “We restate our call on governments at the Federal, state and local government levels to be more committed to the development of the transport system, particularly in fixing and regularly maintaining the several bad roads and death traps that dot Nigeria’s highways and landscape.”

    The union leader said Nigeria, especially the academia, would miss Iyayi’s inspirational literary works and frank contributions “to the resolution of several questions bordering the existence of the Nigerian state”.

    Enabulele added: “While we hope this will be the last act of recklessness of executive convoys, we pray for the speedy recovery and perfect healing of all those who suffered various degrees of bodily injury.”

    The ASUU leader urged the Iyayis to be consoled that the late activist lived a good life with many accomplishments several people would wish to achieve in their lives.

    Oriabure, the son of the late Iyayi, thanked the NMA for the visit.

    He hoped the association would continue to give a voice to the voiceless, health care to ordinary Nigerians and fight for the common interest of the masses, which his father fought and died for.

  • A night in the State House

    A night in the State House

    There is a general impression out there that journalists covering the Presidential Villa normally cart home money in ‘Ghana-must-go’ bags as part of the largesse from the beat.

    But, so far, I have not seen such since I started covering the Presidential Villa.

    It is also believed that journalists on the beat get presidential treatment in everything they do at the Villa.

    One of my editors at the head office was particularly shocked with what journalists went through while waiting for the end of the 13-hour meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last Monday at the First Lady’s Conference Room in the State House.

    As the meeting borders on national issue whose outcome would be of great interest to many Nigerians, he knew that it would be difficult for me or any of the journalists to leave the venue of the meeting until it ends and we get the news for Nigerians.

    The editor, who called intermittently to get update from the starting of the meeting around 2.40 p.m. on Monday to the end of the meeting by 3.35 a.m. the following day, could not believe what journalists waiting to get the outcome of the meeting went through.

    When he called around 1.30 a.m. on Tuesday to know if the meeting had ended, I told him that the meeting was still ongoing. Feeling concerned for me and other journalists, he then said that he was sure that we must have been served dinner, coffee or tea and other drinks during the long wait.

    I told him exactly what we were going through. First and foremost, nobody offered us any drink or food while the meeting lasted.

    I told him that many journalists who did not anticipate the meeting spilling over to the following day, did not see any food to buy and had to stay hungry throughout the duration of the meeting.

    By the time they realised that the meeting could end in the wee hours of the following day, most shops and restaurants outside the Presidential Villa were already closed.

    Still worried, he wanted to know if the journalists were at least staying in a comfortable room at the venue. I had to explain to him that journalists have access to two befitting press centres, one located at about one-minute’s trek from the President’s office and the other within the Banquet Hall of the State House.

    But because the two press centres are far away from the First Lady’s Conference Room, venue of the meeting, journalists had to hang around the venue since they knew that the key actors at the meeting might not wait for journalists to re-assemble if they decide to stay in any of the press centres.

    So, in order to get first-hand information on the outcome of the meeting, I told my editor that journalists made do with what was available at the meeting venue by sitting or lying down on the bare floor by the entrance to the building.

    A great number of my colleagues had to sleep on the bare floor; and some of them were snoring away their tired souls not minding the harsh harmattan weather gradually taking over Abuja and its environs.

    Some of my colleagues, who managed to keep awake in the night, kept themselves busy by taking pictures of other journalists sleeping on the bare floor and also used their midgets to record the croak-like noise from their snoring colleagues.

    I also told my editor about the comparison some of my colleagues were making between some of the night vigils they kept during the past meetings to resolve the fuel subsidy protest at the same venue and what they went through last Monday night and Tuesday morning.

    According to them, there was a great difference between the two sets of meetings. Unlike the fuel subsidy meetings that usually started around 9:00 p.m. and ended in the early hours of the following day, last Monday’s meeting started in the afternoon and did not end till 3.35 a.m. the following day.

    By the time I finished telling him what we were going through, my editor kept wondering aloud when Nigerian journalists will truly be treated as members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm, as they are often referred to.

    Even though they criticise the government on wrong policies, when they don’t actually have constitutional or statutory powers, they should, at least, be respected for the roles they played during the military era and the current democratic dispensation as they act as important pillars in sustaining our democracy after the legislative, the executive and the judiciary arms of government.

     

  • ‘Fed Govt can’t negotiate salary without Wages Commission’

    The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service Matters, Aloysius Etok, yesterday said the negotiations between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on salary increase may not yield result without the input of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission.

    Etok spoke in Abuja when he led members of the committee on an oversight tour of the commission.

    He noted that it was wrong for the Federal Government to contemplate or negotiate salary or wage increase without the input of the commission.

    The senator also cautioned against what he called sentimental negotiation for salary increase in the civil service.

    Such negotiation, he said, was partly the cause of incessant industrial actions in the country.

    Etok said: “We have said this earlier that on no account should the Federal Government engage in negotiation for salary increase or anything that has to do with wages without the input of relevant commission.

    “The government should also avoid any form of sentimental increase or negotiation. We should do away with exceptions. Four months ASUU has been on strike is about a semester.”

    Etok said the commission would have played a prominent role during the 2009 agreement between the Federal Government and ASUU.

    Etok said they were in the commission to ascertain the level of implementation of the 2013 budget.

    “We also want to know the relevance of the commission to the Federal Government, why your impact is not felt in the salary problems across the country. Why the commission would be there when ASUU is on strike for months as well as who guided the Federal Government in the agreement it entered with ASUU in 2009. You cannot be ruled out in the scheme of things in this country,” he said.

    Etok criticised withholding of part of the commission’s 2013 budget, saying the commission required funds to carry out its research-based projects.

  • ASUU queries four ESUT lecturers

    ASUU queries four ESUT lecturers

    Four professors of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) have been queried by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) for sabotaging its nationwide strike.

    Chairman of ASUU-ESUT, Prof. Agu Gab Agu, spoke with reporters in Enugu yesterday.

    Agu said ASUU-ESUT had a successful congress yesterday, and they resolved that they stood with the ASUU National Executive on the strike.

    He said they abide by whatever NEC says and awaits its directive.

    On the purported resumption of academic activities at ESUT yesterday, Agu said they were informed that some lecturers met with the management and sold the idea that they were representing ASUU.

    “We are meeting with the management and have refuted that because we do not know them. We did not give them the mandate.

    “Four professors are involved and we have queried them and when they reply, we’ll know the next action to take. We are forwarding the query to ASUU national. Nobody sent them. They don’t have the mandate of ASUU,” Agu said.

    He said the action of the erring professors was painful, knowing the stature of the man who died.

    “Prof Festus Iyayi was a devoted activist. You need to be close to him to appreciate him. I was with him when we had residency at Oxford Roundtable last year. He was a devoted family man.

    “He came with his wife to Oxford. There were three Nigerians; Prof Iyayi, Prof Akin Oyebade of the University of Lagos and I. We were hosted by the Nigerian community, led by Prof. Shoduke of Leys Pharmacy.”

  • In memory of Festus Iyayi

    Forget the trauma university education in Nigeria is currently going through, no thanks to the ongoing strike action by academic staff and Federal Government’s reluctance to meet the lecturers’ demands fully.

    Pocket your anger, if you have any, towards the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian University (ASUU) and Abuja for the near five months forced stay-at-home they have jointly imposed of the hapless students.

    Look instead at the contributions of ASUU over the years to Nigeria’s development and the calibre of its leaders and you’ll appreciate what a tragic loss the death of one time ASUU president Professor Festus Iyayi is to the nation.

    Death as the saying goes is a necessary end and will come when it will. But while no one can say exactly where and when he/she would take his/her exit from this world, it is always painful when the death is self-inflicted or avoidable/preventable so to speak.

    In the case of Professor Iyayi, he did not invite death on to himself but death was visited on him by a driver in the unnecessary long and reckless convoy of Kogi State Governor, Captain Idris Wada Tuesday last week along the notorious Lokoja-Abuja Highway. He was on a mission along with his ASUU colleagues to Kano for the union’s NEC meeting to see how the crisis bedevilling Nigeria’s university system can be resolved and bring the students back to school.

    One of the best known ASUU leaders of his generation, Iyayi together with the likes of current Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Attahiru Jega perhaps best epitomised the struggle for a better university education in Nigeria that ASUU is known for. Even if not a few Nigerians would raise questions over ASUU of today, (Federal Government’s sometimes irresponsible action notwithstanding) the contributions of the likes of Iyayi and the direction he took the ASUU of his era should serve as a guide to those presently at the helm at the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities.

    His death, though painful, should bring all concerned in the protracted negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government to their senses and act in the best interest of the nation. No meaningful negotiation is achieved if the parties stuck to their guns; the game is called give and take. That’s why it is called negotiation. I think we have gone beyond the level of apportioning blame; both parties would definitely have something to say to justify their different positions. But if the two parties truly have the interest of the nation at heart it shouldn’t be difficult to reach an implementable agreement and remaining faithful to it.

    Iyayi would have died in vain if this strike should continue beyond this moment or happens again in the near future over the same issue of funding of our university system and remunerations for the academic staff. Those involved on both sides should act responsibly now.

    And for Professor Iyayi to sleep well, those who caused his death should be punished. But I doubt if the driver of the convoy car that recklessly overtook the rest of the vehicles in the governor’s convoy and caused the crash involving the bus in which Iyayi and other ASUU officials were travelling would be punished. He is the driver to a ‘big’ man so to speak, and people like him are rarely punished for any offence committed while on duty. This is Nigeria where impunity like this happens.

    But if we are in the same country and operating under the same law, then nobody should be above that law. I hasten to bring to your notice the story of one citizen Sulaiman Awwal from Kogi State that appeared in this newspaper last week and the kind of ‘justice’ the system meted out to him to justify the call for the punishment of the government driver that killed Iyayi.

    Awwal, a fire prevention consultant was released from Agodi prison in Ibadan last week after 11 months awaiting trial in jail for the offence of manslaughter. How did he find himself at this notorious jail? Well, according to Awwal, he was driving from Saki in Oyo State to Ibadan the state capital on January 7, this year when an aged woman ran across the road around Moniya on the outskirt of the city and he knocked her down with his vehicle.

    The villagers came out and mobbed him as he tried to rescue the woman and they handed him over to the police. Death came for the woman as she was being taken to hospital. Three days later Awwal was charged to court for manslaughter and remanded at Agodi prison by the Magistrate. He was there until Monday last week when the family of the deceased applied to the court to discontinue the case and the Magistrate duly struck out the case.

    Don’t ask about his experience in prison, it was horrible. The concern here is what took him to prison? The vehicle he was driving had an accident and one person was killed by him in the process, the same way one of the drivers in Governor Wada’s convoy drove recklessly causing the death of Professor Iyayi. Shouldn’t that Wada’s driver be charged with manslaughter?

    Well, if the Attorney-General and chief law officer of Kogi State would act in accordance with the demands of that office, yes the driver should be so charged. But would he? Let’s wait and see.

    The death of Professor Iyayi in the hands of Governor Wada’s driver should finally draw Federal Government’s attention to the recklessness and lawlessness of drivers of government vehicles especially those who drive dignitaries including State governors, ministers, police and military chiefs and even local government chairmen.

    When these drivers are on the road, especially when they are driving their bosses, often in a long convoy, they drive as if they are on a mission to commit suicide and any motorists unfortunate to stand in their way albeit legitimately, often have sad stories to tell. They drive without regard for traffic rules and regulations. Most times they drive above the normal speed limit and officers and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps are often helpless to act.

    It is about time they are told and shown that they are not above the law and making an example out of the Kogi State governor’s driver would go a long way in letting them know that the immunity from prosecution extended to their bosses (governors) by the constitution does not cover them.

    Beyond this however, the mentality of our public officers especially the political leaders that they are superior to the rest of us has to change. They enter the road blowing sirens to scare the rest of us out of their way; and woe betides that person that stands in their way. Many have gone the way of Professor Iyayi in the process and nothing happened to either the offending driver or his boss. This is part of the culture of impunity that we carried over into this political dispensation from the military era of the past. We have to purge ourselves of all the evils of the military era and embrace the rule of law and accept equality of all Nigerians for this nation to move forward. This is the only thing that can atone for the killing of Professor Festus Iyayi who died in the struggle to make our country especially university education in this country better.

    May his soul rest in perfect peace. Amen.

     

  • ASUU to FG: Stop use of sirens

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ilorin branch, has called on the Federal Government to ban the use of sirens by public office holders in Nigeria.

    The union made the call in Ilorin on Monday in a release signed by its Chairman, Dr. Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, on the death of former ASUU president, Prof. Festus Iyayi.

    It called on the Federal Government to see the tragic death of Iyayi as a wake-up call on the use of convoys and sirens by government functionaries.

    “We call for a declaration of emergency to tackle the death traps that we call roads in this country. The carnage must stop,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted Dr. Oloruntoba-Oju as saying in the statement.

    According to him, convoys of governors are not meant to terrorise the governed whose taxes are used to buy the cars, pay drivers and ensure their maintenance.

    ASUU chairman said that convoys should not convey or deliver death to the masses of the country.

    “We join our voices to that of the governor of Lagos State who has clamoured incessantly for a stop to the use of sirens to terrorise citizens,” he added.

    Oloruntoba-Oju said that ASUU had declared seven days mourning period for the late former ASUU president.

    According to him, November 13 to November 19, had been declared mourning period by ASUU members, adding that flags at all secretariats of the union are to be flown at half-mast.

    He also enjoined all ASUU members to wear the symbolic black arm bands or dress in black during the mourning period.