and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over non-
implementation of the 2009 agreement assumed a dramatic
dimension yesterday, as the government vowed to sack any
lecturer who fails to return to class within seven days.
The government has, therefore, directed all vice-chancellors
of federal universities that are currently on strike to
immediately re-open for academic and allied activities. The
striking lecturers on their part, declared the directive by the
Federal Government a joke, saying they will never be
intimidated into calling off the strike. Supervising Minister of
Education, Mr Nyesom Wike who briefed journalists in
Abuja yesterday on the strike said it was rather unfortunate
that after a 13-hour meeting with President Goodluck
Jonathan in Abuja on November 4, 2013, the union came up
with new conditions before they could call off the strike.
He said it was obvious that the new conditions put forward by
ASUU were not in the interest of the nation. One of the
conditions was that President Jonathan should facilitate
endorsement of resolutions reached with him, which must be
signed by a high ranking government official, preferably the
Attorney-General of the Federation but not a permanent
secretary. ASUU said their representative as well as the
President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulwahid Omar,
would stand as witnesses.The striking lecturers also wanted
the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for
public universities to be lodged with the Central Bank of
Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the benefitting universities.
They also want the government to pay their salary arrears
before resuming academic activities.
Resume or get sacked— Wike
Speaking with newsmen, yesterday, Wike said: "All Vice-
chancellors of Federal Universities that are on strike should
immediately reopen for academic and allied activities as
directed by their Pro-Chancellors. Vice-Chancellors should
ensure that staff who resume for work are provided with the
enabling environment for academic and allied activities. "Any
academic staff who fails to resume on or before December 4,
2013, automatically ceases to be staff of the institution and
vice-chancellors are also directed to advertise vacancies
(internal and external) in their institutions".
He also accused ASUU of sabotaging the effort of
government in addressing the issues especially after having a
13-hour meeting with President Jonathan where all issues
were resolved and firm commitments were made. He said
ASUU first met with Vice- President Namadi Sambo but there
was no positive response; so they met with President Jonathan
on November 4. He said: "On November 4, 2013, in a 13
hour meeting, President Goodluck Jonathan met with the
ASUU executive, the labour union leaders from Nigeria
Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC,
where all issues were resolved and firm commitments made to
address the lingering issues.
"It is noteworthy that Mr. President's gesture was more than
sufficient to guarantee the commitment of Government to
address all issues as resolved at the meeting with Mr.
President. "At the end of the meeting with Mr. President, the
ASUU executive promised to meet with its National
Executive Committee to present the resolutions reached and
report back by Friday November 8, 2013. "As a responsible
government we cannot allow continuous closure of our public
universities for this length of time (five months), as this poses
danger to the education system, the future of our youths and
national development".
The minister therefore directed NUC to ensure all the Federal
Government universities comply with the directives saying,
"the National Universities Commission, NUC, is hereby
directed to monitor the compliance of these directives by
various institutions". When asked whether the directive by the
Federal Government to vice chancellors to reopen was not
against labour laws, he said if there were any grievances they
should seek redress in the law court.
Threats will only worsen it—ASUU
However, ASUU, in its reaction said the threat by the Federal
Government to sack university lecturers would only worsen
the situation and "another long path to make the strike linger
more than necessary." With the threat, ASUU said it was
evident now that the Federal Government was not ready to
implement any resolutions it reached with the union. While
the government is threatening to sack the lecturers, the union
disclosed that Nigerian public universities needed 60,000
lecturers owing to failure of government to employ.
The treasurer of the union, Dr. Ademola Aremu, who spoke
on behalf of the union said the Federal Government would
only succeed in wasting the time of Nigerians and youths in
the country if it failed to perfect the resolutions. ASUU said it
was trying to do all necessary things as regards the resolutions
reached with the government because it had reneged on the
promises it made with ASUP, resident doctors, and health
workers.
Describing the threat as an insult to the sense and sensibilities
of Nigerians who were waiting on the Federal Government for
positive reaction, the union said, "with the latest action, the
Federal Government has shown that they are not committed to
all they have been saying. We are saying that since we agreed
at the meeting that the sum of N200 billion is for 2012 and
2013 revitalisation, the Federal Government should deposit
same in the Central Bank of Nigeria. We are already in
November and December is around the corner.
If they don't do that now, when do they want to do it?. We
are saying the non-victimisation clause should be included as
agreed while the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement should
be included as agreed with the President. "It is a pity if the
Federal Government is not willing to perfect the resolutions
reached with union. This is why we find it difficult to hold
our leaders by their words. How can someone be threatening
to sack lecturers when universities are already short-staffed by
almost 60,000.
We are not in military era. The military tried it and failed.
This one will fail again. They can re-open the schools. ASUU
did not shut down the universities. It was the school
management that ordered the students to go back home."
FG ultimatum a joke— lecturers
Some university lecturers said that the Federal Government
directive on the reopening of federal universities, which also
directed other members of staff to resume by Dec. 4 or be
sacked, was a joke. They spoke in separate telephone
interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
In his reaction to the directive, Dr Oghenekaro Ogbinaka,
Chairman, University of Lagos branch of ASUU, said that the
development was strange and laughable.
He said that this was so considering the fact that the union
was yet to get back to the government, after their deliberations
with President Goodluck Jonathan. "Our reaction is simple.
Let us just wait for the seven days to come around. What
government has just done shows that they were not committed
in the offer they made with the union that had the Trade
Union Congress President and the Minister of Labour in
attendance. We are not going to fall to that blackmail. Now,
which one is better, government acceding to our demands or
issuing out threats?
"Honestly, this whole thing ought to have been easily
resolved, given the approach taken by President (Goodluck)
Jonathan, but it is like we want to be taken for granted after
all and it is unfair," he said. Professor Oyelowo Oyewo,
immediate past Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos,
simply described the development as "a glorified joke and
laughable". Oyewo noted that it was funny that one of the
parties which had before now been holding dialogue, would
try to intimidate the other.
"I see this whole thing as a joke and I dare say it is not even
worth my comments. We just keep our fingers crossed and
watch. I still emphasise that such ultimatum is a display of
insensitivity and a huge joke." Also commenting on the
government directive, Professor Sat Obiyan, Head of
Department of Political Science, ObafemiAwolowoUniversity,
Ile-Ife, said that the ultimatum was not the best approach to
resolving the issue. He, however, said that the threat might
achieve some success because some lecturers would resume
for fear of losing their jobs, but it would not end the crisis in
the education sector.
Obiyan said however, that it was unfortunate that the strike
was allowed to linger for so long."Nigerians are worried over
the situation; the prolonged strike is not good for the
education system in the country, but the Federal
Government's approach now is not the best.
ASUU used to threats
"What is required is little understanding by both parties to
agree on something and end the strike without aggravating it.
It is not a new thing for the Federal Government to threaten
ASUU members with sack; it was done in 1996 by the late
Sani Abacha. "For the university system to work perfectly,
you need all the personnel and not few lecturers on ground to
teach," he said. Obiyan urged the Federal Government to have
a rethink and implement the agreement reached with the
union.
He also urged ASUU to give the Presidency the benefit of
doubt that the agreement would be implemented, given the
President's intervention which saw him leading the
government delegation at the last negotiation. Also, Dr Yinka
Ajala, Head, Department of Geography,
ObafemiAwolowoUniversity, Ile-Ife, said that the threat
would ignite more problems in the education system.
Ajala said that threatening lecturers with sack should not be a
weapon for the Federal Government. He said that the ASUU
executive was being careful with the agreement reached with
the Federal Government before suspending the strike. "What
ASUU is asking for is not too much, they want government to
show some commitment with the agreement. Government can
only force few lecturers to resume but not all, even if the vice-
chancellors open registers in the institutions.
"The sack threat is a tactic that will not work; it has been used
by the military in the past, so it is not new to us. I do not
think this is the way government should handle the strike, it
will not solve the problem," he said. The Coordinator of
Education Right Campaign (ERC), Mr Hassan Soweto, said
that the ultimatum would only worsen the problem, noting
that it was against the principle of public bargaining. What
ASUU wants is some level of commitment from the Federal
Government before it will suspend the strike. It is not right for
the government to use force in a democracy," he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Agbomeji Ibrahim, a student of
LagosStateUniversity, Ojo, urged the Federal Government not
to be authoritative by giving lecturers one week to return to
classes or face sack. Ibrahim, who is a student unionist, said
that there was a better approach to resolving the issue, rather
than using a sack threat. "Both the Government and ASUU
need to accommodate each other on the negotiation table
because both parties cannot get all their demands and must be
ready to shift grounds", Ibrahim said.
ASUU's Secretary, University of Abuja chapter, Abubakar
Suleiman in his reaction said the conditions given by the
union before the strike would be suspended were still real and
insisted that the union would not compromise its stand on
account of intimidation by government. According to
Suleiman, "the strike is still on and we are not going to call it
off on account of intimidation. We are not raising any fresh
demands, we only gave government conditions to ensure that
our members who participated in the strike are not victimised.
Ekiti students embark on prayer sessions
Meanwhile, students from EkitiState, in tertiary institutions
nationwide, embarked on marathon prayers and sought divine
intervention to put an end to the strike action. The students
had converged on Lady Jibowu Hall, Ekiti Government House
where they held the prayer session, yesterday. The session had
in attendance, the state's Deputy Governor, Prof essorModupe
Adelabu and some clerics. Mrs Adelabu in her remarks
cautioned the students against taking to the streets and
engaging in illegal acts that could lead to violence and
disruption of peace in the state.
The Deputy Governor noted that the students did the right
thing by taking their petition before God. She said it was
unfortunate that both parties to the dispute – ASUU and the
Federal Government – remained adamant despite interventions
from well-meaning Nigerians.She then urged the students not
to relent in their regular prayer for divine intervention, saying
that the death of Prof Festus Iyayi, a frontline ASUU member
in an auto-crash along the Abuja-Lokoja Road introduced
another twist to the lingering dispute.
Mrs Adelabu, who expressed the hope that the prayers of the
students would yield the desired result in a matter of days,
counselled the undergraduates against engaging in activities
that could jeopardize their future.
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