The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dr. Fagge

  • As ASUU members smile to the banks

    SIR: All things being equal, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, in the next couple of weeks, will be smiling to their various banks to collect salaries for the five months they did not work. That is in addition to the contraption called earned allowance, where teachers collect pay for marking scripts and supervising students’ projects! That can only happen in Nigeria.

    Of course, a couple of ASUU members will tell you that they were doing research while the strike lasted. Yes, research via www.google.com! Let them publish the results of the research. A thorough appraisal of the quality of lecturers will show that at least half of those teaching our children now have no such intellectual capacity. What is, essentially, on parade now on our campuses is intellectual bankruptcy.

    If Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie got 40 per cent salary increase for ASUU after a four-month strike in 2009, including payment for the period of the strike and Dr Nasir Fagge got N40bn earned allowance, including payment for five months that ASUU did not work, any wonder what the next ASUU president will do?

    I feel personally pained that ASUU is merely deceiving the public and cheating the system just like the political class.

    Other labour unions are watching with keen interest.  If you collect salaries for going on strike for five months, we as well can go on strike for 10 or 12 months and then compel government to sign a non-victimisation clause, which, according to ASUU’s dictionary, menas payment for the period they were on strike!

    I once told my lecturer friend that he was free to resign, contest election to the Senate, so he could earn an ‘elephant salary’ a month. But with the caveat that he also risked being kidnapped or assassinated like any typical Nigerian politician. Yes, politics is big business but it’s also a big risk in Nigeria.

    Yes, ASUU members, go and smile to the banks at the expense of your students who stayed at home for five months, wasted their accommodation fees, year of graduation, NYSC (service year) and went into avoidable sundry crimes. We know so many children of members of ASUU in private universities in Nigeria and abroad. Can Dr Fagge contradict that?

    It does not matter how much you pump into the varsities, the funds will still be mismanaged by former ASUU members now in management positions (and they are mismanaging everything, including elections).

    As for the rot in the education sector, who are the profiteers?

     

    • Segun Adebiyi

    Yaba, Lagos

  • ASUU president seeks proper workers’ remuneration

    The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Nasir Fagge, on Monday in Abuja called for appropriate remuneration of Nigeria workers to boost their morale.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Fagge made the call at a two-day stakeholders’ forum organized by National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC).

    The forum was on the review of the existing job evaluation and grading system in the Nigerian public service.

    Fagge said that productivity in Nigeria was low because “people who do not contribute to nation’s building earn the highest pay.”

    He said that several well-meaning Nigerians had failed to contribute immensely to nation’s building due to the anomalies related to remuneration.

    He advised the authorities to ensure that recommendations arising from the forum were properly implemented.

    “Productivity is not commensurate to remuneration in the country. There are a lot of people in Nigeria who do not contribute much to nation’s building but they earn the highest pay.

    “The major issue behind Nigeria’s under-development is that we have not been doing what is right in the remuneration system. In other nations remuneration is directly proportionate to productivity.

    “The earlier we make sure that productivity is remunerated accordingly the better for us,’’ Fagge said.

     

     

  • Jonathan, ASUU move to resolve impasse

    Jonathan, ASUU move to resolve impasse

    President Goodluck Jonathan this afternoon maintained that  the protracted over four months’ old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would be resolved today.

    Jonathan, who took charge of the Federal Government’s  negotiations with the lecturers, gave the assurance while shaking hands with the lecturers just before the meeting commenced at the First Lady Conference Room in the Presidential Villa.

    Exchanging pleasantries with the team led by ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, who were already seated with the Leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress, Jonathan said: “My president all the problems will be over today , all our children must go back to school”

    When greeting the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwahab Omar, President Jonathan said: “My president with you around today, there will be no problem, our agreement is signed, sealed and delivered.”

    On the Federal Government team include Vice President Namadi Sambo;  Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu; Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim; Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof Julius Okogie; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

    Also with the Federal Government team are the Chief of Staff, Chief Mike Oghiadhome, and Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Mac John Nwaobiala.

    Members of ASUU team at the meeting include its Vice President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, three past presidents of ASUU, Profs. Festus Iyayi, Dipo Fashina and Abdullahi Sule-Kano.

    Other members of ASUU delegation included Prof. Suleiman Abdul; Dr. Victor Igbum; Prof. Victor Osodeke.

    The ASUU negotiating team also have the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwahab Omah; the Trade Union President, Bobboi Kaigama in attendance.

    The Presidency, on September 19th, took over negotiations with the striking lecturers with the Vice-President Namadi Sambo spearheading the Federal Government side.

     

  • FG not committed to resolving varsity crises – ASUU

    FG not committed to resolving varsity crises – ASUU

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said that there is no sincerity on the part of the federal government in keeping with the 2009 agreement.

    Speaking to journalist in Makurdi, Benue State, on Wednesday, the President of the union, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said the federal government is only interested in keeping ASUU members talking but not committed to addressing the rot in the university system.

    He dismissed the federal government’s assertion that other sectors of the economy would be affected if the 2009 agreement is implemented.

    “The government has intervened in the banking sector,yet the economy did not collapse, it has intervened in Nollywood and textile industries yet the economy has not collapsed.

    The strike is not just about the lectures but efforts to improve standard of infrastructures and leaving condition in federal and state universities. We advised parent, students and stakeholders to understand ASUU’s position as not everybody can afford to send their children abroad for learning, “he stated.