Yesterday, ASUU officials vowed to remain
focused on their fight to ensure that the Federal
Government of Nigeria fulfills all necessary
conditions to end the 5-month-old strike.
ASUU President Nasir Isa Fagge in a press
briefing in Abuja yesterday said the
organization will not succumb to any political
blackmail, but continue to represent the interest
of Nigerians at all times.
He described the threat by the Supervising
Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, to sack
university lecturers as frivolous, saying the
victimisation of striking lecturers was against
the international law to which Nigeria is a
signatory.
He accused the minister of aggravating the
crisis by misleading President Goodluck
Jonathan and, indeed, Nigerians on the
position of the union for the strike to be called
off.
He said contrary to Wike’s allegation that ASUU
gave fresh demands, the union only replied the
Federal Government’s letter, dated November 6,
2013, suggesting that all issues agreed upon
during the meeting with President Jonathan be
put in a memorandum and signed by both
parties before the strike was suspended.
Fagge said in a letter to the president, the ASUU
stated clearly that its emergency National
Executive Council (NEC) meeting called to
consider the views of members on offers by
Jonathan could not take definite decision to
call of the strike, because of what he described
as “certain uncertainties.”
Fagge said the leadership of ASUU, while
waiting for the response from President
Jonathan, was surprised at “lies and mischief”
coming from the minister and agents of
government, “all with the intent of misleading
the Nigerian public.”
According to Fagge, “since the issuance of the
union’s response to the said letter, the salvos
that have been coming out, allegedly from the
Minister of Education, makes one to wonder
whether the person that is charged with the
responsibility of superintending over the
Nigeria’s education system has the
wherewithal to handle a vital national
assignment.”
Wike had, last week, issued an ultimatum for
the striking university lecturers to resume
classes on or before December 4 or be sacked.
But ASUU had insisted that unless the accord
struck with President Jonathan was properly
documented and the MoU signed by relevant
parties, the strike would not be called off.
Fagge said the union had no issue with the
directive by the Federal Government that gates
of universities be opened to students, but
stressed that the lecturers would not be there
to teach.
He further stressed that the demand was also
in reaction to announcements by the Secretary
to the Government of the Federation, Senator
Pius Anyim, that the 2012 MoU, “a document
authorised by himself, was not binding on
government, since it was signed by a
permanent secretary and was, therefore, a mere
promise and a non-binding piece of paper.”
In the resolution signed by the Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mac
John Nwaobiala, on November 6, 2013, it was
agreed that N200 billion would be released as
2013 revitalisation fund for public universities,
which ASUU wants “deposited with the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the
benefitting universities within two weeks.”
According to the resolution, a total of N1.3
trillion was to be released between 2013 and
2018, with N200 billion for 2013; N220 billion
for 2014; N220 billion for 2015; N220 billion for
2016; N220 billion for 2017 and N220 billion for
2018.
ASUU decried the state of Nigerian universities
and the “deliberate lies and misinterpretation”
of true state of things by agents of government,
adding that the union would not be deterred
from fighting for improvement of the conditions
of Nigerian universities.
To clear the air on how branches voted on
whether to suspend the strike or not, Fagge
said “of the 52 branches of ASUU, 48, roughly
92 per cent, advised conditional suspension of
the strike, that is suspending the strike only if
certain conditions are met, while four advised
on suspension of the strike before pursuing the
implementation of certain conditions.”
Insisting that the strike must continue if
government did not commit to resolutions
reached, Fagge said “we want to make it very
clear that we shall bow only to what we as
academics are convinced will serve the interest
of Nigeria and its people, no matter their ethnic,
religious or class origins. This is where we
stand. We shall not be cowed.”
He also dismissed allegation that the strike was
being hijacked by opposition parties to discredit
the President Gooluck Jonathan-led
administration.
He revealed that Nigeria lose about N60 billion
annually to Ghana, due to higher percentage of
Nigerian students that flooded the country.
He maintained that the agreement, if
implemented by the government, in the next five
years, Nigeria would have witnessed
unprecedented transformation of its university
education and would be competiting favourably
with the best universities in the world.
On the threat to sack lecturers, Fagge said
what government needed to do was to engage
more university teachers, saying there was
already acute shortage of teachers in the
universities across the country.
He said the government needed to recruitment
additional 23,000 lecturers on the basis of
50:50 ratio between the federal and state
universities.
Academic activities commence at AAUA, ESUT
Academic activities resumed at the Adekunle
Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), on
Monday, as some lecturers of the institution
complied with the directive by the management
of the school to commence lectures.
Although lectures have not started fully in all
the departments, a visit to the school campus
showed that lectures had started in some of the
departments of the university, with students in
classrooms.
It was observed that lectures were on in some
of the faculties including Arts and Education.
It was also gathered that timetables for lectures
for the second semester of the 2012/2013
academic session had been released by each
of the departments, to signal the
commencement of academic exercise.
Also meetings of the heads of departments in
each of the faculties were held to ensure proper
courses allocation among the lecturers.
The vice chancellor of the university, Professor
Femi Mimiko and principal officers of the
insitution went round the campus to monitor
the level of compliance to the directive.
Speaking after the monitoring exercise, Mimiko
expressed satisfaction, saying the development
showed that about 60 per cent of the academic
staff were back on campus.
“I am satisfied with the level of response that
we have received so far, viz-a-viz the directive
that management gave that lectures should
resume today.
“I have personally gone round and I also sent
my principal officers to go round the
classrooms and it was discovered that quite a
number of classes held.
“As we speak, lecturers are in the classrooms
teaching, yes the students are just coming
back to campus, that is not unexpected, but
the good thing there is, more than half of the
total number of lecturers have indicated their
desire to teach and they are all over the place
teaching, I hope and believe that from
tomorrow, the situation will improve,” he said.
Mimiko said it was a matter of individual choice
if a parent chose to listen to ASUU and keep his
child at home, adding that there was little or
nothing that could be done to that.
Also, students and lecturers of the Enugu State
University of Science and Technology (ESUT),
on Monday, returned to school, following a
directive by the school authorities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported
that the authorities had directed them to
resume classes on December 2 and commence
preparations for the 2012/2013 second
semester examination.
NAN correspondent who monitored the
situation at the Enugu and Agbani campuses of
the university reported that the students were in
their various departments exchanging
pleasantries and checking the notice boards.
At the faculties of engineering and management
sciences in the Enugu campus, students in their
numbers were copying the second semester
examination timetables pasted on the notice
boards.
The lecturers, on the other hand, held a
meeting with the governing council of the
university at the Agbani campus on the
resumption of work.
Addressing the lecturers, chairman of the
council, Chief Chilo Offiah, appealed to them to
sheathe their sword and return to classes in the
interest of the students.
Offiah thanked the lecturers for attending the
meeting and assured them that the council
would do all it could to ensure the improvement
of their welfare.
The executive members of the ESUT branch of
the ASUU did not, however, attend the meeting.
Meanwhile, it was a different situation at the
Enugu campus of the University of Nigeria,
Nsukka (UNN), as only a few students and
lecturers were on campus.
NAN reported that the few lecturers were in
their various offices, while the non-academic
staff members were busy working.
Some of the lecturers who spoke with NAN on
conditions of anonymity said they were waiting
for directives from both the school authorities
and the ASUU branch.
FUTO Senate sacks teaching staff
For failure to return to classrooms, the Senate
of the Federal University of Technology Owerri
(FUTO) has sacked all academic staff on its
payroll with immediate effect.
The sack order was made known by the Public
Relations Officers (PRO) of the institution, Mr
Chike Ezenwa, while speaking with the Nigerian
Tribune in Owerri, through telephone.
According to him, the senate of the university
had declared all the positions of academic staff
in the institution, adding that they would be
advertised starting from Monday, December 2.
The senate council, he explained, had already
compiled the list of vacant positions in the
school, adding that who were willing to resume
would be adequately protected.
Meanwhile, the FUTO branch of ASUU has said
any attempt to break their ranks would be
strongly resisted by their members.
This was contained in a communiqué issued at
the end o their meeting held on Monday, and
signed by both the chairman and secretary, Dr
Ikenna Nwachukwu and Dr F.M. Eke
respectively.
The communiqué urged members to ignore the
resumption notice by FUTO management,
adding that the branch would not engage in
any academic activities until the Federal
Government commited itself to implementing
the ASUU-FGN agreement.
UNILAG lecture rooms remain shut
Lecture rooms at the University of Lagos
(UNILAG) remained shut on Monday, despite
the expiration of the one-week ultimatum given
by some members of the ASUU branch of the
institution.
Lecturers at the institution, were, last week
Monday, served with an ultimatum to resume
work by a faction of the union.
Asked their likely next line of action if the
lecturers failed to resume work, Dr Micheal
Ogbeide, one of the leaders of the faction,
refused to divulge their intention.
However, in a telephone conversation with the
Nigerian Tribune, on Monday, Ogbeide said
since the Federal Government had made a new
decision as to when the striking lecturers were
to resume, they had no choice but to await
government’s next directive.
“Government owns the school, not us, so we
have to work with the decision of government.
“The decision of the owner (Federal
Government) supersedes that of any pressure
groups in the school. By now, schools are
working their calendars and adjusting them in
preparation for resumption, so one cannot just
jump into the class and begin to teach,” he
said.
UNIJOS mgt, ASUU set for showdown
Authorities of the University of Jos (UNIJOS)
have directed all academic staff of the
university to commence work with immediate
effect, while the branch chairman of ASUU said
the union will not succumb to threat and
intimidation.
The authorities of the university, in a circular
signed by the registrar/secretary to the council,
Mr Jilli Dandam, made available to Nigerian
Tribune in Jos, Plateau State, pointed out that
all academic staff of the university shall return
to their various departments, units and
directorates and commence work immediately.
It added that daily compliance register would
be kept by all heads of department for all
academic staff, while it further directed every
head of department to publish lecture time-
table for all academic programmes by today.
However, branch chairman of ASUU, Dr
Jangkam Wannang, said the union would not
succumb to threat to call off its strike, adding
that conditions to call off the strike were well
spell out.
He said intimidation and harassment of any
form would not force the union to call off the
strike.
“We will not succumb to threat, the strike is for
the improvement of the system. The threat and
intimidation by both the government and
governing council of a universities will rather
complicate the problem rather than addressing
it,” he said.
OAU students desert campus
Students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU),
Ile-Ife, on Monday, failed to resume for
academic activities, despite the directive of the
government.
A correspondent of NAN, who visited the
institution, reported that none of the students
were seen on campus for possible
commencement of academic activities as
directed by the government.
Mr Abiodun Olarenwaju, the Public Relations
Officer of the institution, confirmed to NAN that
not a single student was on campus “for any
reason whatsoever.”
He said the few lecturers on campus were
around “for reasons other than academic,”
adding that “you know our lecturers have not
totally deserted the campus like that, many of
them still come around to do one or two things
in their offices, but no teaching and learning
activities.”
Gombe varsity lecturers fail to resume
Lecturers at the Gombe State University are yet
to resume classes, despite the directive to do
so by the government.
A NAN correspondent who visited the university
campus on Monday reported that while the
non-academic staff reported for work, offices of
the lecturers were still closed.
NAN observed that the students also did not
turn up for lectures as of the time of the visit.
When contacted on telephone, branch chairman
of ASUU, Mallam Umar Adamu, confirmed that
none of the lecturers of the university had
resumed work.
Adamu said the union would meet tomorrow, to
decide on what to do.
The premises of the university was, however,
calm as security operatives were seen keeping
vigilance at the main gate.
The academic staff of Federal University in
Kashere, also in Gombe State, did not, however,
join the strike.
UI students stay off campus
Students of University of Ibadan (UI), on
Monday, obeyed the directive of ASUU and
stayed off campus, against the order of the
Federal Government.
The UI branch of ASUU also lashed out at the
Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck
Jonathan, Dr Doyin Okupe, for calling the union
“enemy of the state.”
Members of the union at the institution, at a
congress, resolved not to sign any register and
were united in rejecting the directive of the
government.
In an interview, the branch chairman, Dr
Olusegun Ajiboye, said the union remained on
course at ensuring that government made
funds available to public universities.
Ajiboye said the union respected the office of
the president, but carpeted Dr Okupe and other
advisers werefor their attempts to ridicule the
office of the president through their unguarded
utterances.
Ajiboye, who lashed out at Okupe for describing
ASUU as enemy of state, asked him to separate
the roles of corrupt government officials, oil
thieves, vandals and cabals in government
from the patriotic struggle of ASUU.
“Historically, leaders have failed because of the
bad counsel of their advisers. Mr President
needs to be careful not to be derailed by people
like Okupe, who do not see corrupt politicians
and cabals as well as looters as enemies of
state.
“Okupe does not see anything wrong in bad
roads, comatose health sector, pension fraud,
subsidy saga, aviation fraud, oil theft, as well as
enough problems for the masses by the
leadership,” he said.
The union appealed to the president to read the
letter sent to him in order to know that the
union was not out to disrespect him, but to give
him more credibility.
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