Says govt’s sack threat tragic for Nigeria, Africa
• Denies making fresh demands, alleges misrepresentation
FOR the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the threat by the Federal Government to sack its members has a “tragedy of huge proportions for Nigeria and Africa.”
The union denied the allegation by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, that it had given the government new conditions for suspending its strike.
ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, disclosed the position of the union Monday in Abuja while briefing journalists at a press conference titled “Misrepresentations and intimidation: How not to manage the crisis in the university system.”
According to him, university teachers have a duty to defend the rights of Nigerians to sound public education and to succumb to the threat by the government is to give up on the country.
“We in the academic profession have no such intention”, he said.
His words: “While ASUU has been struggling for conditions in which Nigerian students would benefit from a very much enhanced academic environment in teaching and research facilities, the minister of education is thinking of a thoughtless sack as a resolution of the problems arising from government’s non-implementation of an agreement reached with ASUU as if Nigerian rulers have made no intellectual progress since Abacha!
“The threat to sack all lecturers exercising their rights was made in 1993-1996 by Gen. Babangida and Abacha regimes. Prof. Ben Nwabueze, who was the Minister of Education in Gen. Babangida’s regime and who was instrumental to the military assault on the right of Nigerians to strike, is still alive. It is unfortunate that close to twenty years of national life have not taught politicians and their government the simple lesson that the job of the lecturer is bound by the university statues, which stipulates conditions for employment, promotions and dismissal of lecturers at all levels.
“The ongoing crisis was exacerbated when one side to the dispute, government, represented by 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 not signed by a permanent secretary and was, therefore, a mere promise and a non-binding piece of paper. The valid endorsement of agreed resolutions by both sides is a sine qua non for a just and lasting resolution of the present dispute. It is a universal position, not a new method.”
According to him, there are over 30,000 university teachers in Nigeria, each with certain rights that cannot be pronounced away by any government or minister.
He added: “To be clear: Nigerian lecturers - from graduate assistants to professors, are not begging anybody for jobs. It is now well known that since 2003, successive governments have told the Nigerian people reportedly that the solution to Nigeria’s social economic crises is to kill public and educational institutions and institute the reign of private control of the economy and education, whereas the constitution of Nigeria states clearly that the commanding heights of Nigeria’s economy shall be publicly owned.
“The President of Nigeria in 2003, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, told ASUU that the solution to Nigeria’s university crisis is massive privatisation. From all indications, the minister of education, on behalf of the present government, is set to carry out in the sphere of education what one of its predecessors did with Transcorp and the Airways. The way is being paved for the privatisation of education.”
On the allegation made by the Federal Government that the union after meeting with the President came up with fresh demands, Fagge said: “I will establish to all discerning minds that ASUU did not bring any ‘new conditions’ as claimed by the minister of education and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Mr. Doyin Okupe. It is government that is trying to avoid taking responsibility.”
Justifying ASUU’s request to the President to disburse the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for public universities, 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. ASUU’s letter to the President does not change that agreement. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of ASUU’s position, conveyed to His Excellency, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan through the minister of education, only said the following: ‘Our members are suggesting that the N200 billion agreed upon as revitalisation fund for public universities should be deposited in the CBN and disbursed to the benefiting universities within two weeks.’”
He also disclosed that it would be “unreasonable to suggest that it is a new demand. ASUU NEC’s position that the funds for the revitalisation due to universities in 2013 should be released within the first two weeks of December 2013 is not a new demand. It is a sensible suggestion to guard against implementation failure.”
According to him, the inclusion of the non-victimisation clause is a universal practice, and ASUU’s insistence that the resolutions accepted by both sides be documented is not a new demand but a requirement of all agreements.
The ASUU President noted that the union would welcome Nigerians abroad to come and join the academic development of Nigerian universities.
“This will benefit the ASUU’s struggle to reverse the braindrain. Let the minister of education find thousands of them to replace those he wants to sack”, he said.
He also denied allegations that the APC was behind the strike, adding that ASUU was not a political party neither did it have any political affiliations.
According to him, however, the ASUU is always open to negotiation with the government and willing to call off the strike when its demands are met.
“We shall only bow to what we as academics are convinced will serve the interest of Nigeria and its people, no matter their ethnicity, religion or class. This is where we stand. We shall never be cowed,” he said.
Fagge also appealed to all Nigerians who cared about the country to prevail on the government to “do what is just and noble as its present approach will only compound the deepening yet avoidable crisis.”
The Chairman of University of Uyo Chapter of ASUU, Mr. Nwachukwu Ayim, said that his members would not succumb to any threat, as the December 4 deadline was not binding on them.
He told The Guardian that the announcement by the university’s management for students to get prepared to return to school had nothing to do with ASUU’s stance on the strike as the union was not in any way bound by such statements.
“We are not the people that shut the school in the first place, the university management can ask students to come back, but ASUU members are not bound to return to work”, he said.
According to him, the UNIUYO ASUU congress has resolved to continue with the strike until the Federal Government fulfils its promises to the union.
The chapter of ASUU at the University of Ibadan (UI) berated Okupe for calling the union “enemy of the state” and directed its members not to sign any register.
The teachers appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to read the letter sent to him by the union so as to know that ASUU was not out to disrespect him.
The union spoke as students of UI defied the school management’s order directing them to resume.
The aggrieved teachers, who held a congress at UI, resolved not to sign any register and insisted that the government must perfect the resolution paper and implement the agreement reached with them.
The Chairman, UI chapter of ASUU, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, told reporters in Ibadan that there was no going back in the fight for proper funding of public universities by the Federal Government.
But lecturers at the Ondo State-owned Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, resumed in the institution yesterday.
Although lectures did not start fully in all the departments, a visit to the school campus showed that the lecturers, who responded positively to the directive of the university management to report for duties on Monday, resumed in their various departments, particularly at the faculties of arts and education.
Meanwhile, the Lord Bishop of Ife Anglican Diocese, Rt. Rev. Oluranti Odubogun, has appealed to ASUU to resume work in the interest of the nation and the innocent children who are being adversely affected and disregard the threat of the Federal Government.
According to him, the teachers have made a point that is very clear to the entire nation and the fact that battle is not won just once.
Speaking at the weekend during the Diocese of Ife Carnival for Christ 2013 Grand Finale at Ife Anglican Grammar School, Arubidi, Ile-Ife, the cleric indicted the government for not being ready to accept its blame and that the kind of threat issued to ASUU had never worked.
He said that the Federal Government had failed and was only playing on emotion, noting that the then Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, during his administration did the same thing but failed.
No comments:
Post a Comment