Strike: Why we oppose ASUU –NANS by MOJEED ALABI •Says teachers’ body too hypocritical, selfish The lingering crisis between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the ongoing 74-day-old nationwide strike embarked upon by the teachers’ union to press home its demands has taken a new dimension with the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) accusing ASUU of being too selfish and hypocritical. The NANS President, Comrade Yinka Gbadebo, told National Mirror yesterday in an exclusive interview that ASUU had never carried the students along in its purported struggle to fix the problems within the education sector, saying if the union had been particularly concerned about the state of education as it wants the public to believe, it would have consulted the students who he said are truly the victims of the rot in the education system. Gbadebo, who was reacting to the rumour that he had been impeached as the NANS president, accused ASUU of sponsoring the news, saying the students’ body was clear in its opposition against ASUU on the ongoing strike. “Truly speaking, if this case is about ASUU, I would sincerely tell you that we can never be on the same side but we have been cautious in our approach because we understand that the matter is beyond ASUU, only that ASUU has not been sincere about its true position. ASUU is more concerned about its allowances and not the infrastructural development of our schools. “Our grouse with ASUU is that ASUU has never seen students as partners but rather as tools to be used when it is time for protest. We lost five of our members in June and not a single condolence message emanated from ASUU, but unfortunately, four days later, former Lagos State Governor Tinubu lost his mum and ASUU National President, Prof. Nasir Issa led ASUU team to him. And the same body will come out to claim it is fighting on our behalf, what sort of hypocrisy is that?,” Gbadebo stated. The NANS president said it had tried to meet with both the Federal Government and ASUU to resolve the lingering crisis but that only the Federal Government has responded to explain state of things while ASUU refused to grant them audience. “As at this morning (yesterday) I have the chart of how the Federal Government has released the N100 billion it promised and you have schools like the Lagos State University receiving about N1.3 billion; OAU got N3 billion; University of Maiduguri got N3.5 billion; University of Abuja got NN3 billion; University of Ibadan got N3.25 billion; University of Nigeria got N3.2 billion, and in all, a total of 61 universities have been approved to benefit. “Aside that, the sum of N30 billion has also been approved for ASUU for its allowance and we say if the fight is truly about the students, let’s go back to the classrooms with a caveat that the rest must be made available because total collapse of the system cannot solve the problem. The problem had been on for so long and the solution can never be so sudden as ASUU would want,” the NANS president added. Meanwhile, Gbadebo has enjoined parents and students to continue to appeal to ASUU to call off the strike in the interest of the nation and the students in particular, saying the cleansing of the education sector should begin with the teachers’ union itself. “If ASUU is so much interested about the education sector, then it should begin sanitizing the system by purging itself of corrupt lecturers who sleep with our female students, collect bribes to grade us and even engage in multiple contracts with various academic institutions and thereby leaving the students to suffer. There has been no time that students have problems that ASUU has ever come to our aid, instead, they complicate our matters by serving on the committees that approve our rustication from institutions,” He said. The NANS president thereby warned the teachers’ union that if it does not go back to school in the interest of the students that he said he represents, there would be opinion poll among the students and the result could lead to both legal and political actions to force them back to work.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 09:55:53 +0000
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