The Nation Newspaper

Tag: headaches

  • Automotive sector’s many headaches

    SIR: The country’s automotive sub-sector may, as it were, be enmeshed in fresh round of uncertainty, if the recently retained 14 percent Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) is anything to go by. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele announced after the 264th Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja that the decision to sustain the MPR “underscores the confidence CBN had in the various policies and administrative measures it had deployed lately,” which it added also “resulted in the moderation in domestic price levels and stability in the foreign exchange rate.”

    Enthusiastic as Emefiele sounded, he was also mindful of the fact that some key sectors of the economy had continued to experience what he described as “significant challenges, barring the tepid recovery of the domestic economy from recession.”

    The automotive sector is most likely one of the sectors that have experienced significant challenges the CBN governor pointed at in his review of the domestic economy from recession. This is even more so when viewed against the precarious turmoil that has thrust the automotive sector in the last couple of years against obnoxious winds.

    Patronage of new automobiles, be it passenger cars, commercial vehicles, vans and even heavy-duty vehicles have continued to decline year-on-year, leaving stakeholders in a quandary of hesitation.

    Those particularly affected are the stakeholders who had upon the inauguration of the National Automotive Industry Development Plan late 2014, liaised with some Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to stake their hard-earned resources in the country’s emerging automotive sector.

    The FDIs had come in their hundreds, hoping that the federal government was truly committed to the speedy development of the automotive sector, but no sooner they staked their funds than they perceived some cracks and crevices in the policy document, believed to have successfully passed through the Legislative arcades, and currently awaiting the executive accent.

    To say the investors are in a dilemma would be an understatement as majority of them have either given up hopes that anything meaningful would come from the Memorandum of Understandings they earlier signed with the local stakeholders, who are similarly waiting endlessly for the Executive accent.

    Although a flash of relief came in December 2016, when the Federal Government ordered a restriction of vehicle imports through the land borders, the respite soon paled into obscurity as smugglers returned to the creeks, cashing on weak implementation of the directive to railroad used vehicles popularly called tokunbo into the country via porous land borders.

    Prospective new vehicle buyers have also in the wake of this development resorted to patronizing used vehicles imports moments after they discovered such vehicles could still find their way into the country.

    This unpleasant scenario again doused the hopes of local vehicle assembly plants who have watched helplessly as combined sales figures plummeted from 50,000 units annually, (using 2014 statistics) to a paltry 14, 500 units in 2016 and less than 10, 000 units in 2017, the worst in five years.

    Current situations at the marketplace are not promising either as transactions at the end of the third quarter of 2018, is nothing to cheer.

    Nigeria, however, need not cry over spilt milk as it has a substantially buoyant youthful population that could play a large role in fostering the growth of the country’s automobile market if the needed machinery is put in place.

    Blue chip companies including oil and gas concerns could as well as enhance their patronage of locally assembled vehicles to encourage local plants to expand production just as the government too has a role to play in the growth and acceleration of the new automobile market.

    Government should introduce market-support initiatives, especially around regulations, helping with seamless credit schemes, granting tax holidays and ensuring seamless access to FX, while disseminating information to both manufacturers and consumers alike to avoid undue asphyxiation.

     

    • Manny Philipson, Lagos.

  • Headaches linger

    •United Nations report says Boko Haram scare still slows down humanitarian work

    The United Nations is not a body that makes fuss, especially when it regards security of lives and properties. So, when the world organisation announced recently that Boko Haram, the terror band of northern Nigeria, was frustrating its work in that part of the country, it should compel our attention.

    This is contained in a report released by the United Nations’ Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The report does not advert specifically to the names of the local government, but it says it has difficulty carrying out humanitarian missions to the south, southwest and east of the state.

    According to the report, “most roads to the south, southwest and east remain unusable due to security concerns and most humanitarian personnel movement is done through air assets.” The report continues that “cargo, however, is being transported via road with armed escorts as a last resort.”

    What concerns the United Nations is its ability to perform its task of bringing to normalcy the lives of many who have been denuded of their basic supplies to live from day to day.

    The report says further that, “insecurity, presence of mines, improvised explosive devices and unexploded ordinances had continued to slow down the response of humanitarian agencies in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.”

    It is not clear from the forgoing if the United Nations was painting broad strokes about the northeast rather than Borno itself. So, maybe the UN meant three states and not three local government areas.

    The report said, “no humanitarian aid is currently reaching locations on these locations in these LGAs outside of the LGAs’ main towns called “headquarters.” The report was also titled, “North-East Nigeria: Humanitarian Situation Update.”

    The report has a few cheering lines. For instance, it says “major humanitarian supply routes towards the west, north-west and north are open for humanitarians without the use of armed escorts. Following advocacy efforts, Konduga and Mafa are now also accessible to aid groups without military escorts.”

    Whatever the situation is, the heart of the UN report is in the right place. It shows that they would like to do more for Nigerians in the region, but the propitious environment must predate such enthusiasm.

    Since the Buhari administration kicked into action in the northeast, we have witnessed a profound retreat of the Boko Haram group. We have cheered as a nation to a new berth of relative tranquility as against the old savage swagger and slaughter that reigned in the years of the former president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

    We acknowledge, and the military should as well, that the story is far from over. We continue to see the sporadic attacks from ragtag bands and suicide bombs from beguiled youths. These may sound like irritation but they are the proper definition of terror.

    Places where people are packed together become what security experts call soft targets. Soft targets are a routine part of organised societies and civilisation. We are not only seeing this here in northern Nigeria, but everywhere else in the world, especially in the west. We have seen this in Britain, United States, France, Germany and a few other countries.

    In northern Nigeria, including Borno State, markets, schools and places of worship have become spots of vulnerability.

    What this calls for is to step up intelligence services to anticipate these acts of terror. With the significant retreats of the terror group, the onus is now to rebuild infrastructure, health services and schools. The root cause of the problem is educational backwardness. To attack it, we must not allow the forays, however intermittent, from the Boko Haram to slow down efforts to bring life to normal in the Northeast.

  • sex and headaches

    sex and headaches

    When sex  hunger enters the mind and finds a seat, it occupies the whole seat. Production of   sex hormones for  males  begins as early as eight weeks of development when baby boy is still in the womb, and increases steadily with minimal fluctuations throughout life. For women, there are fluctuations as estrogen levels change with the arrival of puberty, feeding habits, life style, premenopause, others. Persistent thinking about sex in terms of needs for every biologically functional adult male and female may be associated with headache. This is particularly true with sexually active partners or married couples, where the regularity of sex has a SIGNIFICANT nerve calming effect.  For this reason and others bothering on security, married couples  in general, live longer than their unmarried counterparts. When sex is absent for no genuine reasons, or it has to be demanded,  tied to events, circumstances, demands, wants and conditions, headaches become  manifest.  This is one condition where in response to testosterone surge, a man  forces his legitimate wife  to have  sex and yet remains largely tense, unsettled and irritable. A beautiful wife can  create several shades of headache  in her husband  by way of sending mixed messages, using all sorts of body language to draw his eyes to her sexy body  while at the same time, telling him straight out, “that  tonight is not the night” ;she is not ready for sex. Men enduring such situations are also liable to die young , or die during sex either with the wife or with a lover outside .  For Nuns and other ultra adherents to faith, the response to sexual needs depends on extent of body and mind training ,but the fact remains that physiological demands can indeed be so overwhelming that God only knows what people do with their private lives when alone with no one else seeing them.

    Such categories of people are not likely to report headache unless it is ascribed to an illness or disease condition

    Some women in the premenopausal, menopausal and the immediate post menopausal period otherwise referred to as women in  the transitional menopausal period ,have a mixed blend of headaches; research has shown that they constitute the highest  population of sex starved women  for various reasons including, divorce, loss of husband to death, illness of husband with Physician-prescribed medications that have  severe effects on libido and erection, undisclosed illness or disease conditions involving this class of women. Fluctuating levels of estrogen in association with rising levels of leutenizing hormone releasing hormone (LHRH) may combine with inner tension to add color to the daily oxidant generating,inner tension that these people cope with, resulting in headaches.

    Headache in different shades is more common and may be more severe  for women in the reproductive period of life(usually 15-49years). Frequently, people want to know if it is safe to have sex when a woman is menstruating.  Some husbands  have even  gone  ahead to complicate matters by beating wives who refuse sex during menses. Complaints of headaches and other general feeling of unwellnes   during  menses provide a concise definition of  an illness condition as opposed to  a disease condition. According to the international headaches society(IHS),headache when associated with menses may be separated into subclasses, depending on the duration of headache in relation to that of the period when  the woman experiences  menstrual blood flow.  The demarcation is however blurred as a result of individual differences(genetic polymorphism). Headaches may appear one or  two  days  before menses begin and then stop as soon as blood flow becomes steady . Headache  may however continue till the end of menses or persist beyond the period. It is now a matter of whether headache occurs in association with menstrual period in the absence of any  disease conditions usually known to cause headaches.

    In general terms, the severity, frequency and duration of headache depends on the hormone profile as well as the fertility status of the menstruating woman. Women  belonging to the reproductive age and who do not experience menstruation (as primary or secondary amenorrhea), irregular menses ,  oligomenorhea, are likely to have additional  but related issues with ovulation. They are less likely to have headaches associated with menstrual cycles. For those women with regular, ovulating menstrual cycles, headache is expected as normal physiological phenomenon. Patients with fibroids who usually have  heavy bleeding (menorhagia) and some younger females with unexplained life threatening   menstrual bleeding (metropathia hemorhagica) may be associated with headache ,though likely to be submerged by the more sinister effects  of severe blood loss. Among other explanations, there is preferential organ perfusion during this period  that has been characterized as comparable to what happens in severe unregulated  physical exercise or preferably at the early stages of hemorrhagic shock, where as a result of blood loss, the human body tries to preserve blood for certain organs of the body including, the brain and kidneys  and if arrested, these organs are the last to recover.  Sex during menses is safe and perfectly  normal, depending  on the personal hygiene of the woman. The blood of menses is red in color, is not watery, contains natural antibiotics, does not form clots and has no  smell.

    For  couples that are not using  medicines and other artificial methods  of family planning, sex during menses removes the fear of  getting pregnant because it happens to be the only period where the chances of getting pregnant amount to 0.00009%. Beyond that, it is not as if bleeding occurs every hour of any 24 hour period. The question however is what happens if a woman has headache during menses and uses that as an excuse to refuse sex.  In the absence of any other illness as described earlier and  as may be expressed as fever, yellow eyes, vomiting, or neck stiffness, this headache is very likely as a result  of  menstruation ,and can respond positively to sexual intercourse ONLY if the woman is emotionally ready for it. If  she  says she is not ready by words from her mouth or through  her body language , the matter should be quietly allowed to rest. If it is forced on her, it might signal the beginning of a cycle of actions and reactions; the consequences might not be  what is intended to maintain marital happiness .

    Before pregnancy, women are more likely to have period pains(dysmenorhea).  During pregnancy most of the organs of  the anatomical structures in the body undergo changes resulting in remarkable increases in joint spaces, length and breath of ligaments, and organs .Therefore with one or two pregnancies, these changes together with the altered balance between the hormones of pregnancy plus the addition of a new  pregnancy hormone (relaxin), the condition of dysmenorhea may undergo improvement.

    Dysmenorrheal  pain is usually confined to the pelvis or waist region, but may spread to involve other structures including the neck bones and thence headache .The treatment of period pains involves special drugs which are mostly acid producing as opposed to drugs commonly used for headaches. This will be clarified in the closing part of the article.

    For sex between a husband and his wife, there is no doing it half way for women; no woman is ready to have her systems raised to high mountain tops, hung  upside down and then left there Scarcity of  information on human sexuality, inhibitions from religion and family traditions , communication, among others have made it difficult for many married women to achieve the  normal physiological rapture of orgasm . It is interesting to note that  orgasmic sex  as a result of the peculiar delicacy of the anatomical structures involved, will not only  ameliorate headache, al other factors considered normal, it is also more likely than aorgasmic  sexual intercourse to result in pregnancy(for couples wanting to have kids)

    Sex is capable of  bringing down headache  only under a number of conditions, but  there are issues here and  time and space will permit only very brief discussion;

    Sex must be  consensual, unhurried, complete, and devoid of guilt either before, during or after

    The story has been told of a happily married woman who while attending a conference got carried away and had a fling with a colleague who for years was actually a  close family friend. Back in  her matrimonial house, she developed an unusual type of headache that was diffuse, throbbing and associated with sleeplessness. As sleeplessness worsened,  so was loss of appetite ; the heart became involved. One thing led to another and with  gentle persuasion from  a man of God, she made a heartrending confession . That much is how sex related feeling of guilt and inappropriate sexual experience can cause headache and even death.

    For married couples it must involve communication as to how each partner wants it and how frequent .

    There should be no background disease condition such as typhoid, malaria, cerebrospinal meningitis or boil any where in the head .

    Recently, it came from the social media that a very popular  Television couple(woman is a TV reality show personality, husband well known rap musician) was having sex  about fifteen(15) times a day ;the woman in this relationship is understood to be very sexually active .Whereas it is possible that the couple will fail a lie detector test if  one was arranged, it is also quite possible to achieve such  feats with the aid of potent performance enhancing drugs, nearly all of which are associated with dangerous side effects. A common  side effect of drugs which  stimulate or enhance sexual performance is headache and it may be the only symptom. Unfortunately, this symptom is usually ignored  even when it develops as the sexual act is going on ,when the man who is usually the victim of death  in most cases  should have stopped .The medical opinion is that couples having sex fifteen times in a day  are both likely to die young ,and in particular, the man may die of sex related heart attack or will very soon develop a process of aging that will ruin his libido or his capacity to perform any physical activity of life  at the lowest level. Not surprising that the family Physician in the case of the popular reality TV sow couple has dutifully warned the woman in this situation to cut down on sex. To clarify issues , let it be known that no consensus exists. There are individual differences in the brain centers involved in the anatomical mechanisms of headaches  and tolerance, perception differ between individuals. The take away message is that for healthy  individuals, sex under the conditions earlier described can stop headaches.  However, when headache develops  in a man  or woman undergoing treatment for Hypertension, Diabetes mellitus, Brain tumor, Thyroid problems, Chest, Heart and  Kidney problems, major orthopedic problems such as fracture of bones,  spine or vertebral column,  prostate or breast cancer, Sex must as a matter of choice between pleasure and death take the back seat. It may take  from weeks to months before sex under these conditions can be considered safe and so perfect  understanding between couples is required There should be no restrictions.

    To be concluded next week

  • Fifteen shades of headaches

    Fifteen shades of headaches

    As was discussed in the first part of this article, medicines  commonly used in the treatment of headache are not very safe . Some are capable of damaging the Liver, others ,the Heart and yet some others the Stomach and Intestine causing Peptic ulcer disease. Analgesics are also capable of trapping developing follicles in the ovary and when a powerful pain killer, taken to kill mid cycle pain of ovulation arrests a dominant follicle in the ovary, the result is ovulation failure Some couples may be surprised to learn that  chronic analgesic abuse is one of the reasons it has been difficult to achieve pregnancy ,all other factors considered favorable. Some kinds of headache are related to the menstrual cycle, occurring a few days before and lasting up till one or two days after . Doctors after taking time to listen to patients, will ask questions and after carrying out thorough physical examination prescribe special types of pain killers  .The results are often gratifying.  For women who suffer painful periods(dysmenorhea),  headache   may come  into the  picture and when this occurs ,pain can be so bad as to drive patients to ask Patent medicine dealers for very strong analgesics. Some  go home , mix these medicines  with  headache drugs and  then promptly collapse .

    Another   matter   is the association between what people call good sex and headache.   Certain types of headaches  are more common in the reproductive age groups  ,whereas in the period after the menopause, women  are bound to experience  many different episodes of  sensations in the head  that are sometimes  associated with headaches. Beyond that  it remains to be settled whether or not legitimate sex  stops headaches or worsens them.   It is not common to have a Medical Doctor provide  a  certain dose of sex as capable of bringing headache down . There have been reports of  migraine type  headaches  becoming more trouble some, even with  multiple orgasms. It is also important to note that it is not unusual for an otherwise  happy woman to persistently refuse sex with her husband on account of  a particularly throbbing headache that has refused to go away. This emphasizes the need for adequate verbal communication , openness and unalloyed  display of intentions if couples mean well and want to live together for as long as age would allow. In some cases, recurrent episodes of dizziness (defined as the sensation of a person feeling that the earth around him is moving or he is moving round relative to the earth), may be the only symptom that a type of headache that runs in families but remains silent most of the time is indeed present as a medical problem ,requiring attention.

    Though  organizations such as the international headache society has  classified headaches into

    various groups, new frontiers in biochemistry, biomechanics, anatomy, physiology and kine anthropometry   have continued to emerge and these have broadened  current understanding of headaches  and the individual factors that influence  them. Some of these factors include age, sex, occupation, race, religion, life style, body size or proportion, heredity, social status and  current health status. In any case the points are worth considering.

    Physicians have come  to situate  patients  as belonging in two broad categories :

    A patient who has pain in the head that is not confined to any one side , lasts for some time  ,and exhibits variable response to medicines is considered to have  a headache

    Any one with  a medical history of very painful headaches that  start suddenly ,are frequently  throbbing, or pulsating as if one feels the heart making speeches through the  head ,confined to one side of the head ( in adults), and who during the period has  two or more symptoms such as  dizziness, vomiting, inability to look at light(photophobia) or tolerate  just above ordinary noise(phonophobia) , dizziness and  weakness or paralysis of one side of the body is deemed to have migraine

    Whether  it is headache or migraine, the condition  must never be ignored as it may signify something going wrong  either in the head, neck, brain or other parts of the body

    Headache or migraine can  be acute or chronic, mild, moderate or severe .

    Experts suggest that in more than 60% of cases,  there is disturbance and reduction in blood flow to the tissues of the brain, as well as to the small blood vessels that surround  nerves of the  head and  neck . This comes with  the release of chemicals that cause pain . The cycle ends when blood flow to the tissues gradually improves and new chemicals bathe the vital structures. Usually and unlike the covering of the brain(meninges) and other rounding structures, pain is not felt in the deeper tissues of the brain in the white and grey matter .This means that, when death of  brain tissue occurs as a result of  these rheological changes leading to cerebral hypo perfusion, the patient does not feel any pain but simply goes into one of the many stages of coma for which Physicians have a scale. Headache in one shade or another therefore represents one way of reporting an ongoing external attack that can be successfully fought  before  the internal one that may be too strong to ward off.

    The effect of Race:  As opposed to headache, migraine is more common among Whites and Caucasians, being less prevalent in African populations irrespective of age and sex.

    Age and Sex differences : The tendency to develop headache increases with advancing age in both males and females up to the age of 40 years. Thereafter, a decline is observed and changes in the pattern, frequency,  part of the head involved, severity and response to treatment occur with respect to many other factors.

    Generally, migraine is either underreported in children of African descent or  it’s diagnosis masked by  headache frequently presenting with Malaria, an endemic condition in most parts of Africa. When present, migraine in children is more likely to involve the two sides of the head and may be associated with aura in the form of seeing objects, such that the child clings to parents ,refusing to be kept on his own . He may also refuse to open his eyes which may  cause  some parents to go spiritual and  think that certain entities present in the room or house are tormenting the child . Left unattended ,this could go on to convulsion with additional complications

    For adults, migraine is usually one sided and  more common in women compared with men. In addition, it is more common in women of reproductive age(15-49). However, a decrease in the frequency and severity of attacks occurs by the age of 40 years. The female hormone estrogen  in concert with other sex steroids is believed to modify the pattern of headache in the reproductive years ,being more likely to exacerbate the symptoms of migraine in patients predisposed by reason of heredity. After the menopause, a woman experiences a different type of situation where every now and then  dizziness occurs  ad-mixed  with sudden rush of blood to the scalp, upper chest, neck and face( hot flushes, postmenopausal flushes), probably due to increased activity of  another hormone ; leutenizing hormone- releasing hormone(LHRH).  Frequently confusion arises as to what to  think, what to treat and the appropriate medicines.

     

    TO BE CONTINUED

  • Council boss many headaches

    His victory during the local governments’ election did not go unchallenged by the opposition party at the election tribunal. On swearing-in, Dr Augustine Arogundade, the chairman of Agbado Oke-Odo Local Council Development Area in Lagos, met a debt of N97.9m from his predecessor.

    He also discovered that the roads in the council are in deplorable state. These and many more were the challenges Arogundade faced as council boss.

    Not deterred by the herculean task before him, the medical-practitioner turned politician did confront the challenges headlong.

    Today, Arogundade’s administration has repaired and tarred no fewer than 10 roads in the council.

    The council boss has also been able to impact positively in the lives of the people of the council through people-oriented programmes.

    With some of the roads in good shape, Arogundade has make business transactions and movement easy for the people.

    “This administration is the first in Agbado Oke-Odo LCDA to construct roads, tar them, build schools, health centres, vocational training centres, construct market and provide for all other needs of the people, so if you go round, you will see so many roads that have been constructed with our resources and assistance by the state government,” he said.

    Dr Arogundade spoke at a recent meeting with party leaders and youths to acquit them of his administration’s performance and give account of his stewardship.

    “We faced some undaunted challenges such as the one and half years litigation to reclaim our mandate and the continuous criminal case against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) contestant. Today, we have not only weathered the storm, our policies have fetched us series of awards.

    Arogundade said: “We have won award for social/rural infrastructure development, we have also won award on peace and security as the most peaceful and secured council in West Africa,” he said.

    He said his administration will carry out a robust and all involving empowerment programme for the people of the council.

    “We will do empowerment programme for the aged, youth and women in our community, we will empower the youths and provide them with jobs.”

    The council boss said though he might not be able to do all, but said he would build on what he has done and provide more dividends of democracy to the people in each of the wards that make up the council.

    “I agree that it may not have been equally spread, but I use this medium to assure all that more dividends of democracy will be extended to all wards,” he said.

    One of the party leaders, Mr Adekunle Fayoyin, Ward G Agbado Oke-Odo and coordinator of the forum of ward chairmen in the council, said the council boss has performed more than his predecessors in office.

    “He has performed quite well, he is the first chairman to tar our roads and builds schools for our children,” he said.

  • UNIABUJA’s many headaches

    UNIABUJA’s many headaches

    For the past five years, the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) has been in crises. The crisis deepened last week when a court stopped the appointment of the vice-chancellor, reports  GBENGA Omokhunu, Abuja.

    With a court stopping the appointment of Prof Mike Adiukwu as Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), the institution’s crisis may not end soon.

    The institution has been contending with management/workers’ face-off, withdrawal of accreditation for some programmes, and infrastructural deficit. It went through these problems during the tenure of its immediate past VC, Prof James Sunday Adelabu, who left office on June 27.

    Last year, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abuja Zone, comprising UNIABUJA, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai (IBBUL), Nasarawa State University (NSUK), Keffi, Federal University of Agriculture (FUAM), Makurdi, Benue State University, Makurdi (BSU) and Kogi State University, Anyigba, urged the Federal Government to release the White Paper of the Special Visitation Panel to the university and decide on Adelabu.

    In April 2012, the Federal Ministry of Education suspended the engineering, veterinary medicine, Agriculture, Medicine and Computer Science programmes of the university for not meeting accreditation.

    National Universities Commission (NUC) Executive Secretary, Prof Julius Okojie, said then that the programmes were initiated during the tenure of the pioneer VC, Prof Nuhu Yaqub, without approval.  The university, he said, failed to equip its community clinic, a basic requirement for medical examination.

    Many medical students were moved to other schools to complete their education after many years of delay.  Engineering students protested in November 2012 before they were moved to five other universities.

    The last days of Prof Adelabu in office were fraught with altercations with the university’s ASUU and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU).  The unions have been on strike since June 2 and 4.

    They are protesting the suspension of the deduction of  check off dues.  Before the expiration of Adelabu’s tenure, they were pushing for his removal over what they described as “bad leadership.”

    The strike led to the indefinite closure of the institution by the Governing Council led by the Pro-chancellor, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia.

    ASUU Chairman, Dr. Ben Ugheoke, who gave reasons for the strike, accused Adelabu of failing to remit the check off dues deducted from workers’ salary in April 2013 and suspending the payment of the dues from May 2013 to the union’s account.

    “This is a provision of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which every citizen or institution of the country must abide by. However, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof JSA Adelabu, flagrantly disobeyed and till now still disobeys this law. In April of 2013, he checked-off dues and levies meant for the union’s bus purchase, but has refused till this moment to remit such deductions to the union’s account.

    “In order to prove that Prof J. S. A. Adelabu hates peace and industrial harmony, he stepped up his onslaught on the union when in May of 2013 he unilaterally decided to stop the deduction of ASUU check-off dues. These combined actions of not checking off dues for and non-remittance of checked-off dues to the union are a complete violation of the above quoted portions of the Nigerian law.

    “ASUU believes what’s worth doing at all, is worth doing well. The union embarked on strike to insist on the release and implementation of the White Paper of the Special Visitation Panel of 2012; restoration and remittance of check-off dues of the Union; payment of all claims and arrears owed its members since 2010; proper constitution of the Budget Monetary Committee (BMC) in line with due process and restructuring of the promotion process into the professorial cadre. The union has had talks with the Governing Council and the Council believes that all the union is requesting is legitimate and just. In fact, the Council referred to the union as partner in progress.”

    Even though Adelabu remitted the April 2013 check off dues to the union, before his exit last month, Ugheoke said the university management still has to resolve the issue of the suspended dues and others before the strike can be called off.

    “The strike was not person-based; it is issue based and the issues have not been resolved.  Whoever steps in as vice chancellor has to resolve the issues before we call off the strike.  They have promised that it will be restored with the June salary but we have not been paid for June,” Ugheoke said.

    The union also accused Adelabu of trying to award a N3 billion contract few days to his exit.  On June 23, the institution was shut down for about a week when a protest by both ASUU and SSANU nearly ended in violence.

    Ugheoke explained that the union got hold of some circulars calling for meetings of the ‘Tenders Board’, Appointments and Promotions Committee (A&PC) and the Finance and General Purpose Committee (F&GPC),  between June 23 and 24.

    He described the planned meetings as illegal, especially when the VC had just five days to go. The SSANU Chairman, Jude Nwabueze, vowed then that the unions would lay siege to the Senate Building to prevent the planned meetings.  The said meetings were suspended by the governing council.

    But, Adelabu in an interview with The Nation denied the allegations levelled by ASUU against him.

    He alleged that the union is being economical with the truth about the check off dues.

    He said: “ASUU owe the public the responsibility of telling them the right thing. As far back as April last year before government even announced that, I stopped the issue of check-off, that is the union’s dues which we help to collect directly from source and remit to them, these monies are paid along with their salaries and the union know very well that the check-off are paid alongside their salaries to them individually.

    “There had earlier been a directive as regards to check-off dues during strike.  The document is there but up till now there is no repel to it. I wonder how they now come up with the latest allegation that I refused to remit their check-off dues. If you as an individual is owing the union, you already have your salary paid in full, why don’t you take it and pay to the union?”

    “Some alleged that I opened an account. It is very sad when you see academia talking ignorantly like illiterates. If I opened an account as alleged, they should investigate and tell the world the truth. We are not withholding any money or dues belonging to the union; nothing has been deducted, the check-off is paid along with their salaries, they have it in their pockets, what else do I remit to them?”

    Adelabu alos said the allegation that he tried to award a N3 billion contract on the eve of his exit, was baseless.

    He said: “How can I award a contract like that given the fact that the NEEDS assessment is involved for which tendering and opening of bid was done? It was not even by the university but by a consortium.  The award of the contract had taken a normal process for which Council was to meet. They didn’t want me to award contracts as VC.”

    Hopes of resolution of the crisis with the emergence of Adiukwu on VC were dashed following a Govt order stopping him from parading himself in office. Adiukwu emerged from a shortlist of three candidates. Eight of the 13-council member voted for him. Others abstained.

    The other candidates are: Prof Umar Danbata, Acting Vice Chancellor, Kano State University of Technology, and Prof Bayo Lawal of the University of Ilorin, who were said to be ahead of Prof Adiukwu in the final assessments.

    At the council’s 36th Extra-ordinary Meeting on June 30, Dr Ogbemudia urged the staff and students to rally round the new Vice Chancellor in the university’s interest.

    Ogbemudia said the process that led to Adiukwu’s emergence was painstaking.

    However, some sources close to the council told The Nation that Adiukwu’s emergence was influenced by ethnic and religious sentiments.  While some members wanted the candidate that came first to be chosen, others preferred that the issue be decided by vote.

    Three dissatisfied members of the council filed a suit at the Industrial Court in Abuja, which last Monday, barred Adiukwu from parading himself as VC.

    The court also restrained the council from implementing the report of the Joint Council and Senate Selection Board VC the appointment process.

    It directed that the originating summons be served on the council, the vice chancellor and six other respondents.

    Ugheoke said ASUU would not want to be dragged into the case.

    “It isn’t ASUU that went to court.  ASUU is distant from the court case.  It is not part of it.  The three members of council that went to court are not ASUU members,” he said.

    After a congress last week, Ugheoke said ASUU’s would go with the council’s selection, since no law was breached.

    “Last Thursday, we rose from our congress with the resolution that an appointment has been made of a vice chancellor even though it fell short of our expectation.  Since there was no breach of the extant laws of the university, we have resolved to work with the vice chancellor that was chosen.

    “The law states that the council shall select from among the first three and recommend to the visitor.  There is no statement that we must pick the first or second or the third positions.  The law only says that the council should pick one of the three,” he said.

    For over a week now, the institution has not reopened and students have been are wondering if the new VC will bring about the much needed change to make up for the lost years.

    All Bayo Ola, a 200-Level Law student wants is peace and progress.

    “I just want peace to return to this university, my mates in other universities have graduated and I am still in 200 level, what a pity. I hope this new VC will bring peace and fast-track things academically. I am not happy with the way things are. The strike should be called off now that the new man is there,” he said.

    Indeed, the new VC has a lot to do to reshape the institution and bring back its glory.

    Adiukwu’s name has been updated on NUC’s website, which has the names of all universties in Nigeria, their vice chancellors and dates of establishment.  But the outcome of the court case will determine the university’s fate.