ASUU strike action: Students, parents lament THE academic strike action by lecturers in the country is no more news. After several meetings, negotiations, pleas and the threats, government and the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU) has still not been able to find a common ground at ending the damaging strike. A recent threat by the Federal Government of ‘No work, No pay’ to ASUU has been said to be taken without seriousness by the Union. It’s National President, Dr Nasir Faggae, said the union would remain unflinching till government fully implements the 2009 agreement. Meanwhile, stakeholders, which includes students and parents have continued to lament the seemingly intractable strike action. A final year student from the Federal College of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Yejide Idowu, complained bitterly on how the strike was delaying her graduation from the university, “ASUU should please accept the money government is offering and resume their duties. At least, we should conclude this semester examination,” she pleaded. Mrs O. Sijuade, a teacher, who has three children in the university, believes that the lectures should take the amount government was offering now and resume academic activities in the universities. “If after an agreed period of time, the Federal Government refuses to pay up the remaining part, then, they can resume the strike again. The children are really restless at home. Youths being left unecessarily idle over such a long period of time would have a negative effect on them, their society and the nation in the long run,” she said. A stakeholder, Mr Ayobami Olushile, an education consultant however thinks differently. He said “I do not think ASUU should accept the N30 billion offer. They should clear this problem once and for all. Why split the money?. The Union has been patient for three years. Government needs to stop paying lip service to the education sector. I believe ASUU should keep its stand.” In Mr A. Adeosun, a retired school principal’s opinion, “I believe that the lecturers are mainly concerned about getting their allowances paid, which is understandable, but they also need to understand that it is the innocent students and parents that are suffering the strike the most. Just as in war, where children always suffer the worst. “They need to consider this and resume their work. All these problems can be solved even when they have resumed duties. They are simply causing more damage to an already chaotic system,” he said. Faggae, at a press conference in Lagos recently, noted that after about ten meetings with the government team led by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim, and the Benue State governor, Mr Gabriel Suswam, at their last meeting with the union, spoke with a tone of finality that government will not implement the massive injection of fund to revitalise the public universities as stated in the 2009 agreement which is the crux of the strike action. “Rather, it (government) is only making dubious statement of supporting some universities with the sum of N100 billion. Government has also declared that it will not pay university academics their Earned Allowances which accumulated from 2009 to 2013,” Faggae said. He added that the government, rather, was talking about providing N30 billion to assist various governing councils of Federal universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion (the exact sum the union is vying for) owed to all categories of staff in the university system. “It was a sinister ‘take it, ir leave it’ threat of ‘garb-the-crumbs or starve-to-death!,” the union leader said. “At one stage in the interaction, the SGF ridiculed the Agreement, the MoU and the Needs Assessment Report, mocking the Minister of Education to “go and give them N400 billion”, at which members of the government team scornfully laughed, “ Faggae stated. He further regretted the fact that the Agreement the MoU and the Needs Assessment Report undertaken and endorsed by the highest public officials in the country was now being ridiculed by the same people.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Sep 2013 16:57:29 +0000
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