ASUU STRIKE CONTINUES: The hype about Earned Academic Allowances Government has devoted so much energy into its efforts to distort the main triggers of ASUU’s strike. When the strike started, Government mischievously announced to Nigerians that ASUU’s strike was chiefly for the sake of money in the form of Earned Academic Allowances. In fact, at one of the meetings, the Chief Government Representative told the Joint Senate-House of Representatives Committees on Education that the MoU signed by Government did not contain the expressed commitment of Government to provide N100 billion immediately, and N400 billion yearly for the next three years. It took the Chairman of Senate Committee on Education’s intervention to remind the government official that he began his presentation by acknowledging the authenticity of the MoU. For the same reason, at every meeting with the Government Team, the same government functionary repeated that earned allowances were the major issue in dispute even when the Union had said, repeatedly, that for any solution to be acceptable to our members, it must include the implementation of the funding component of the Agreement. ASUU Team was particularly amused that, government believed that what our members are looking for is just money to spend. Why else would government, through the Minister of Finance dangle N30 billion as if it was a dole-out when, in fact, that amount of money was unrelated to the Agreement and the work of the Implementation Committee? We have said it everywhere, and all the time, and we still say it here again that our members have earned their allowances by working for them. They are not begging for crumbs from Government. The Nigerian Government owes them and they deserve to be paid. Passing the buck to University Governing Councils, is only a repeat performance of a one-act play. This tactic has been tried severally even by military dictators in the past, and it ended in vain. The only honourable and patriotic option left for Government is to get off the merry-go-round and implement the 2009 Agreement judiciously. Nothing short of that would make our members to review their earlier position. Resolving the crisis Gentlemen of the Press, our enthusiasm, which we falsely believed was also shared by the Government Team through the MoU in 2012, was fired by the conviction that, with sincerity and good faith, the implementation of the 2009 Agreement would give the much-needed impetus for transforming our universities within a short time and making our country visible on the global radar of development. Unfortunately, this hope was dashed by Government’s insensitivity and demonstration of bad faith. Consequently, our members are left with no other choice than to prosecute this strike to its logical conclusion. ASUU members nationwide are saying this strike will not be suspended until and unless the Government respects the 2009 Agreement and makes concrete efforts to implement it in the best interest of the country. We therefore use this medium to, once again, thank our students and their parents for supporting this struggle to save public universities and the Nigerian nation. We equally thank other patriotic Nigerians in the media, labour and civil society organisations for identifying with ASUU to secure our collective future. We also wish to place on record, our apology to the TVC reporters and crew who were denied access to our Secretariat at the University of Abuja by the Vice chancellor of that university. While appreciating your understanding and support so far, we urge you to remain steadfast for us to regain the lost glory of Nigeria’s public universities once and for all. Gentlemen of the Press, you will probably agree with ASUU that the key to the development of any nation is its education. University education is the master key because the greatness of every country is determined by the quality of its education, especially its universities. It is only by repositioning our universities to compete globally that we can make Nigeria great again. The alternative is to continue in the path charted for us by the duo of IMF and World Bank, which dictates that we surrender our country and the future of our children to continued slavery. We deserve to be free. To achieve freedom, we must struggle to free our education. And, with a revitalised university system, Nigeria shall be free! The struggle continues! Thank you. Nassir F. ISA President 22nd August, 2013
Posted on: Wed, 28 Aug 2013 09:01:21 +0000
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