Strike
The hope that the four month old strike by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities, ASUU, may be called off this week,
following President Goodluck Jonathan's intervention last
week, may be dashed as the 61 chapters of the union are
divided over the move to call off the strike.
President Jonathan held a meeting with the leadership of
ASUU last week, where he made some offers which ASUU
was expected to take to their members for deliberation with
the hope that it will pacify them into resuming academic
activities this week.
Congresses of the 61 chapters of the union were therefore
held, yesterday, while the National Executive Council, NEC,
meeting will hold tomorrow in one of the northern
universities.
The outcome of the union's congresses indicated that there
was disagreement on the need to call off the strike.
Vanguard gathered that while some ASUU chapters were
ready to suspend the strike in the light of the President's
intervention, others insisted that they will continue the strike
due to what they described as their distrust for the
government.
It was learnt that while the University of Lagos, UNILAG,
resolved to suspend the strike, chapters like the University of
Ibadan, UI; University of Benin, UNIBEN; University of
Calabar, UNICAL; University of Jos, UNIJOS and the Lagos
State University, LASU, said the strike must continue,
arguing that the Federal Government could not be trusted to
fulfil its promise of injecting over N1.1 trillion to universities
in the next five years.
Voting at UNIJOS
Members UNIJOS chapter, yesterday, voted overwhelmingly
for the strike to continue.
After receiving briefings on what transpired at last week's
meeting of the union's representatives with President
Goodluck Jonathan and after going through copies of the
resolution of the meeting, 194 members voted for the strike to
continue while 80 voted for a suspension.
Sources told Vanguard that after hours of debate by those for
and against the continuation of the strike, it was obvious that
majority felt that the meeting with the president did not
achieve much.
Those who spoke in favour of the strike to continue wondered
why the strike should be called off on the basis of pleas and
verbal promises by the president, when the government is
allegedly reputed for not to honoring agreements.
They were said to have argued that the suffering by students
and members in the last four months would be a waste if
something concrete did not come out of the strike to improve
the situation in universities.
It was further gathered that those for the suspension of the
strike spoke passionately on the need to consider the impact of
the strike on students and the gesture from President Jonathan,
who met personally with ASUU leaders and pleaded with
them to suspend the strike.
A few of them were quoted as saying it was better to suspend
the strike and find other ways of pursuing their demands so as
not to lose the support of the people.
It was learnt that the Branch ASUU Chairman, Dr. David
Jangkham, after announcing the result of the voting, said it
would be taken to the national body which would collate the
referendum on the issue from various chapters to come up
with a position on whether the strike would be suspended or
sustained.
A member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, expressed
fears that the referenda in other branches might follow the
same trend "if the briefing we got here is what they got."
UNILAG
A source at University of Lagos, UNILAG, chapter, told
Vanguard that the debate at its congress was on whether to
end or suspend the strike.
He said: "We eventually moved to suspend the strike and end
it only when the President pumps in the first N220 billion into
the universities in January 2014.
"Although this is not totally in line with the 2009 agreement,
we feel that we can suspend the strike out of respect for the
President. We just want to give him the benefit of doubt, and
hope that he fulfills his promise."
LASU
At Lagos State University, LASU, one of the executive
members of ASUU, who spoke to Vanguard on condition of
anonymity, affirmed that though the chapter was not averse to
the proposal of President Jonathan, but the consensus at its
congress was that ASUU should not just be a monitoring
body when the fund is finally injected.
He said: "After our congress, which lasted several hours, it
was the resolve of our chapter that the strike should not be
called off, because we are uncomfortable with the fact that the
Federal Government has said that ASUU will just be a
monitoring officer, while the Minister of Education will be the
implementation officer.
"We argued that we must be part and parcel of how the funds
are managed and what they have earmarked for within the
period of five years.
"How can we know if the Ministry of Education and other
authorities are prudently spending the funds for the proposed
projects if ASUU is not part of the management committee?
So, our position is that the strike should not be called off."
LASU's internal issues
The source added that LASU chapter of ASUU may embark
on its local action, after the national strike is suspended or
called off if the university's Governing Council and the State
Government fail to adequately address some of its local
issues, which border on members' welfare and a reduction in
the institution's tuition fees.
He said: "It is our resolve at the congress that if the state
government and the university's Governing Council, which is
meeting on Wednesday, fail to address our local issues
adequately, we shall embark on local actions.
"The university management has wasted four months without
addressing our local issues, which border on the casualisation
of our academic staff, the steep increment in tuition fees paid
by students and the non-implementation of the Universities
Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2012, which allows academic
staff on professorial cadre to retire at 70 years against the
former 65 years."
At UI
At the University of Ibadan, Vanguard gathered that members
asked their leadership to commit the President to signing the
resolution of FG/ASUU meeting held last week and include
non-victimisation clause.
The Chairman, ASUU, University of Ibadan, Dr. Segun
Ajiboye, said that the union had set up project monitoring
committee to ensure that funds released by government was
not misappropriated.
Ajiboye maintained that it was not how quick the strike ends
but how well it ends, adding that the goal of the strike must be
actualised.
According to him, it was regrettable that it took the Federal
Government four months to think education was an important
sector, adding that no country in the world plays with
education the way Nigerian leaders do.
David-West Also, former Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David-West said, yesterday, that ASUU would continue to go on strike as long as injustice remained in the system.
He said this at the UI-ASUU congress, where he vowed to
always support all the struggles that would lead to the
rejuvenation of the education sector.
Via: Vanguard
No comments:
Post a Comment