The union (ASUP) told us that both the FG and ASUP had met in 2009 for an agreement which the FG had not kept to their own side of the agreement. “We were also told that the union and the FG had met several times and that 13 demands were made. Out of the 13 demands, only four were picked by the FG to attend to which up until now is not yet attended to,” the student leader said. He accused the federal government of ignoring one of the demands, removal of the dichotomy between BSC and HND holders, which is central to students’ interest. He also accused the lecturers of only using the student angle to pursue their ‘selfish’ demands. “Please stop using the students as your bait for your own selfish interest because we are at the receiving end,” he told ASUP. “Besides I keep getting calls, when will the strike be over and even when it is over will this discrimination be over. Please find a solution to it.” Mr. Obonnaya’s statement infuriated the ASUP delegation. The union’s president, Chibuzo Asomugha, said he wondered if the meeting was called by the Education Minister, Nyesom Wike, to embarrass the union before the media or to be insulted by the students. “The agenda presented to us is altered. Because in the agenda given to us, we did not see the entry for remark by the NAPS president and we want to point out that we were invited to this meeting officially. “I think we were invited for the media to see us dramatize and to be insulted by the students we teach because it was all over the press that the minster was meeting with ASUP and we came here out of the deep respect we have for the FG. “But if we are here for the student to insult us then I will say there is no meeting,” Mr. Chibuzo, who led the ASUP delegation said. The Education Minister, however, said the agenda was not altered, saying the NAPS president’s remark was an insult not only to lecturers but also the government. “You only picked out the part you were insulted because you teach them, did you not hear the part that the FG was also insulted. “…. but it’s the government who is paying the salary and yet the students will heap all sort of accusations on us,” Mr. Wike said. The minister defended the invitation to the media, saying, “To me, if the meeting with the members of ASUP and NAPS and the FG will hold, there is nothing there if we inform the media. “We have never disclosed to the media any content of any meeting we are having; all we tell them is that there will be a briefing, so there is nothing wrong in what we have done.” Mr. Wike also accused ASUP of making unfair remarks about the government to the media. “In most cases in the television I have watched, you (ASUP) insult the FG, how the government is insincere and how the government does want the polytechnics to grow, have you ever seen us on the pages of newspaper abusing the union,” Mr. Wike said. He also explained the reason NAPS was invited to the meeting. “When the students insisted on seeing the minster, I was not on sit and I told the permanent secretary to listen to them. And part of what the student requested was to be part of the meeting to know what is really going on, “
Posted on: Mon, 27 Jan 2014 09:11:30 +0000
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