…accuses govt of insensitivity The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday demanded the immediate sack of the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, over the ongoing strike in the universities across the country. The union accused the minister of paying more attention to the Rivers State political crisis at the expense of the wellbeing of the education sector. ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Ilorin Zone, Dr. Adeleke Ayan, described the act of “the roving minister” as “an example of reckless abandonment of serious national issues for pecuniary pursuits in Rivers State.” Ayan told journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, that “the Ilorin Zone grossly condemns this roving minister and calls for his immediate removal.” He said university teachers would only suspend the one-month old nationwide strike if the Federal Government agreed on “concrete resolutions backed with immediate and executive implementation.” The ASUU boss demanded immediate release of the N100bn government promised to turn the country’s ivory towers around, saying “a lot of restoration will take place if the money is released.” He also called on the government to implement the 26 per cent budgetary allocation to the education sector in consonance with UNESCO recommendations. The union also stressed that it would not bargain for anything less than the full implementation of the 2009 agreement at today’s meeting with the Universities’ Needs Assessment Committee members in Abuja. Speaking with National Mirror on Tuesday, ASUU National President, Dr. Nasir Isa, said that although the union representatives would attend today’s meeting with the government’s representatives, they would not shift ground on the ongoing strike unless the Federal Government was ready to honour the pending agreement. He noted that the Federal Government had not shown enough commitment so far in that regard. The Benue State Governor, Dr. Gabriel Suswam, being the Chairman of the Implementation Committee of the Needs Assessment recommendations, is expected to lead the Federal Government’s team to today’s meeting with all relevant stakeholders in attendance. The ASUU president, however, noted that part of ASUU agreement was that the federal and state governments should jointly inject a minimum of N800bn to all public universities in the country within two years as a short-term approach to turn the university system around and improve on this on a yearly basis. Also, the South-West Zone of the union said yesterday that the lingering crisis in the university system had reflected government’s insensitivity to the plight of the education sector. The union also called on the Federal Government to stop pretending that it does not have enough funds to prosecute the 2009 agreement. At a press conference addressed on the campus of the Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, ASUU’s South-West Cocoordinator, Dr. Adesola Nasir, stated that it was embarrassing to discover that the government had denied the existence of any agreement with the university lecturers. Nasir, who is also the Chairman of the OOU chapter, said the union was surprised when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, denied the existence of any memorandum of understanding on the annual release of N400bn for three years as intervention fund for the universities in the country. He insisted that the Federal Government had the means to honour the agreement and the release of the intervention fund to universities going by the sale of crude oil at close to 15 per cent above the budget price and had collected about N500bn in 2013 in excess of projected revenue from taxes. The Calabar zone of the union also yesterday denied media reports speculating that the ongoing strike would be called off this week. This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Uyo yesterday and signed by the Zonal Coordinator, Dr. Charles Ononuju and the chairpersons of the four universities of the zone – Dr. James Okpiliya (University of Calabar), Mr. M. Anyim (University of Uyo), Dr. Uzochukwu Onyebinama (Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike) and Dr. Nsing Ogar (Cross River State University of Technology, Calabar). The statement said that unless the Federal Government acceded to the demands of the union by implementing the 2009 agreement and the January 2012 memorandum of understanding, which spelt out the timelines for implementing the agreement, the strike would not be called off. It added that the strike would have been unnecessary if the Federal Government had honored the agreements. “There is clear evidence that infrastructures in Nigerian universities are merely gasping for breath. “This state of despair has been acknowledged by the government. We hereby appeal to our dear students, their parents and guardians as well as Nigerians to support our present struggle for the sake of our nation’s future.
Posted on: Thu, 01 Aug 2013 13:22:28 +0000
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