FG Breaks ASUU Ranks, As FUTO, ESUT, Unijos End Strike By: Michael Oche, Stanley Uzoaru, Achor Abimaje on December 3, 2013 - 3:03am inShare With some universities welcoming back lecturers and students despite the continued stance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that the strike is still on, the federal government has succeeded in breaking the ranks of the lecturers. The government had, through the acting minister of education, Nyesom Wike, ordered universities to reopen and threatened to sack any lecturer that failed to report to work. LEADERSHIP checks showed that the authorities of the University of Jos have directed lecturers to resume work immediately. The university’s registrar, Jilli Dandam, issued a statement, which reads in part: “The Pro Chancellor and Chairman of Council on behalf of the Governing Council has directed that all academic staff of the University of Jos should return to their various departments, units and commence work immediately. Every head of department should publish lecture time-table for all academic programmes immediately.” The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that 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 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 while the lecturers held a meeting with the governing council of the university at the Agbani campus. Similarly, when our correspondent visited the Federal University of Technology Owerri, Imo State, the university had issued a directive for lecturers and students to return to classes. The directive was contained in a press statement issued to journalists yesterday and signed by the registrar and secretary to the council of the school, Orje Ishghnor. According to the statement, the school had called off the strike based on the directive of the federal government. Meanwhile the FUTO chapter of ASUU told the students to disregard the resumption notice by the school management, stating that its members would not go back to the class until their agreement between the federal government is met. This was contained in a communiqué issued to journalists and signed by the state chairman, Dr Ikenna Nwachukwu, and secretary, Dr F.M. Dike, yesterday in Owerri. Also, lecturers of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, and Osun State University have refused to report at their duty posts despite the FG’s directive that they should go back to work. The chairman of the OAU chapter of ASUU, Professor Akinola Adegbola, told our correspondent at Ile-Ife that the threat by the federal government to sack lecturers who refused to resume for work was not new. According to him, such threat was experienced during the regime of the late General Sani Abacha and the resultant effect is still fresh in the mind of Nigerians. You can’t sack us, ASUU tells FG However; ASUU has maintained that FG cannot sack any of its members because of the continuing strike. Its national president, Dr Nasir Fagge, said the union’s insistence on a validly endorsed memorandum of understanding (MoU) is because the union does not trust the government to keep its promise. He said the threat by the minister will only compound the deepening, yet avoidable, crisis. Speaking during a press conference yesterday in Abuja, Fagge said the union’s demand that the federal government release N200 billion before the strike is suspended is not a fresh one. He said, “If you look at the government’s paper of November 6, 2013, it states that the federal government shall provide N200 billion in 2013.” According to a letter written from the government to the union and signed by the permanent secretary, Ministry of Education, Dr Mac John Nwaobiala, and made available to journalists by Fagge, the government had promised to release the sum of N1.3 trillion in a space of six years. The first instalment of N200 billion is to be paid by 2013 and further instalments of N220 billion to be paid in the next five years. Explaining why ASUU insisted on a valid endorsed MoU, the ASUU president said, “The ongoing crisis was exacerbated when the secretary to the federal government announced to the public and ASUU that the 2012 memorandum of understanding (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.” Speaking further on the threat to sack lecturers, he said, “The threat to sack all lecturers for exercising their right to strike was made in 1993 and 1996 by the Gen Babangida and Abacha regimes. It is unfortunate that close to 20 years of national life have not taught politicians and their government the simple lesson that the job of lecturers is bound by the university statutes, which stipulate conditions for employment, promotions and dismissal of lecturers at all levels. “There are, at present, in Nigeria over 30, 000 academic staff, each of whom has certain rights that cannot be pronounced away by any government or minister. That a minister of education would pronounce a threat of mass sack of academic staff is a tragedy of huge proportion for Nigeria and Africa.” He said further, “According to the Needs Assessment Reports, there are a total of 37, 504 teaching staff across all Nigerian universities; the majority of the universities are grossly understaffed; generally speaking, teaching staff distribution in the country, both by qualification and by rank, indicates that Nigeria’s university system is in crisis of manpower. Instead of having not less than 80 per cent of the academics with Ph.D, only about 43 per cent are PhD holders.” Fagge urged Nigerians to prevail on government to do what is just and noble as its present approach will only compound the deepening yet avoidable crisis.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 08:28:15 +0000
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