We’ve met ASUU demands - FG •Extends ultimatum till December 9 •Sack: FG would have contravened ILO conventions - ASUU ************************************************************* Government has stressed that it has met the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), adding that there was no need to maintain the strike. Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Students’ Matters, Jude Imagwe, disclosed this in Abuja, on Tuesday, adding that agreement was reached sequel to the last meeting held between Federal Government and ASUU. This came as the Federal Government, on Tuesday, shifted the resumption ultimatum it earlier gave the union till December 9, in honour of the late former president of the union, Professor Festus Iyayi, whose burial rites begin tomorrow. Speaking during an interactive session with leaders of the National Association of the Nigerian Students (NANS), Imagwe said a larger membership of ASUU campus chapters had voted for the immediate call-off of the strike. According to him, the administration believed that with the agreement and the result of the votes across the branches, the union had no reason for further sustenance of the strike, while he asked members to comply and resume work without further delay. He explained that the directive given by the government was not targeted to threaten the ASUU leadership, but to show the commitment towards ensuring that all university students returned to school. The presidential aide urged union leaders to comply with the directives, by ensuring that all students returned to the campus, assuring that the government would ensure a water-tight security on the campuses. “The Nigerian public should be informed that the government has met all the promises they made on this ASUU issue. If they have not agreed, there was no reason for them to have said they would meet their members and get back. It means there was an agreement that was reached. “The announcement by the Minister of Education that lecturers should resume was not in anyway targeted at threatening or compelling the leadership of ASUU to go back to school,” he stated In his remarks, NANS president, Yinka Gbadebo, maintained that the student body was neutral, adding that “it will always support a just cause.” He said the body was on the side of the government, because it was working in line with its desire for all schools to be reopened. The Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, while announcing the shift in the deadline date in a briefing in Abuja, on Tuesday, said the government decided to shift the deadline after it received the notification of Iyayi’s funeral rites late on Monday. Okojie further noted that the decision was also to forestall a situation where government and ASUU would have to deal with matters arising from the ultimatum during the funeral rites of the former ASUU president. He said the latest directive had been communicated to the various university governing councils and vice chancellors for onward transmission to the academic staff. He, however, said there was no intention to victimise any lecturer for participating in the strike. He said the victimisation clause, which members of ASUU are using to discredit the government, never came up when the unionists met with President Jonathan on November 4. According to Okojie, “any lecturer who resumes on December 9 would have his or her salary arrears paid in full.” Okojie said government, as employer of labour, could not just fold its arms while the institutions remained shut and the students continued to suffer. “You cannot pay someone who has failed to resume work. You are on strike and you want to be paid. What if some have already left the system? Some of our very bright lectures may have got jobs elsewhere already,” he said. Okojie clarified that the resumption order did not necessarily mean lectures would commence immediately, adding that the school environment had to be put back in shape, as reptiles might have taken over some places. “We just received information that the burial rites of Festus Iyayi begins on December 5 and would last till December 7. So, based on this information, government decided to shift the resumption deadline to December 9, to enable lecturers to participate in the burial,” he said. On the N200 billion revitalisation fund which ASUU was demanding should be disbursed within two weeks, Okojie clarified that the money had been deposited in an account in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The money, he said, could not, however, be disbursed anyhow, because they were meant for capital projects. No amount of threat’ll make us call off strike —ASUU As the government ultimatum to ASUU expires today, the Bauchi State chapter of the union has declared that no amount of threats and blackmail from the government could force its members to suspend the five-month-old strike. Rising from its congress meeting in Bauchi, the chairman of the chapter, Dr Lawal Abubakar, told journalists that members of the union had vowed to continue with the ongoing strike, adding that they had no other option but to continue until the Federal Government honoured the agreement it signed with the union. According to him, the threat to sack lecturers was an empty one, adding that the government had no right to sack them, going by law that established the various universities in the country. He assured members that the national body of the union would come up with the next line of action to be taken. “We have resolved and mobilised our members. We have no option but to continue with the strike and if the government sacks us, we shall live to see how it will manage the 61 universities across the country. We have no regrets, because we are highly trained professionals,” he stated. Sack: FG’ll have contravened ILO conventions –ASUU Meanwhile, ASUU has said President Goodluck Jonathan would have contravened the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions if the Federal Government went ahead to make real the threat to sack academic workers. Speaking in Ado-Ekiti on Tuesday, after a meeting of the Ekiti State University (EKSU) branch of the union, its coordinator in Ilorin zone, Dr Ayan Adeleke, described the threat to sack over 93,000 academic staff across all public universities as empty. Restating its commitment to strike, Adeleke, who is also the chairman of EKSU branch of the union, said the union would not return to classes unless the Federal Government honoured all the agreements signed with the union. The ASUU chief posited that the ILO Act and conventions had protected workers to go on strike, describing this as “inalienable rights of every aggrieved worker. “President Jonathan was not the first president to issue such threat. President Ibrahim Babangida issued it in 1992, while the late General Sani Abacha did same in 1996, but they all failed.” Ayan added that “at our NEC meeting in Kano on November 13, with 52 universities attended, no university agreed that the strike be suspended except four, which said it should be suspended unconditionally.” Lectures commence in UNIABUJA Lectures have commenced in almost all departments of the University of Abuja since December 2, a top official of the institution has said. Dr Peter Maidoki, the Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development of the university, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Abuja, on Tuesday. He said some members of ASUU in the institution were responding positively to the Federal Government’s directive to reopen the universities. Maidoki said a register was opened at both the mini campus and the permanent site of the university, for returning lecturers to sign. “I just signed and have finished attending to a class; my colleague has just taken over from me,” he said. The director added said though some of the lecturers who had resumed work were eager to teach, there were no student in some of the departments. He called on ASUU to suspend its strike, which he described as overdue, so as to enable the students to return to classes. Don’t risk your lives, DELSU ASUU tells students Delta State University, Abraka branch of ASUU has warned students nationwide not to delude themselves by returning to their campuses, because it is risky. The DELSU ASUU congress made this known on Tuesday, in a release issued after a special session it held at its campus in Abraka, Delta State. In the release signed by its chairman, Dr Emmanuel Mordi, the union, while enjoining proprietors and vice chancellors of state universities to thank President Jonathan for accepting to assist their universities with billions of naira in the November 4 MoU, said it would be foolhardy for any student to return to any campus for lectures. “For now, it will be foolhardy for any student to return to any campus for lectures which are non-existent. No lecturer will teach at the point of bayonet,” the release read, adding that the strike was embarked upon to provide teaching/laboratory aids and hostel facilities for students. The union, which resolved to continue to support the national leadership of the union until the strike was formally called off, advised students to ignore the call by the Federal Government to return to school when the industrial action had not been called off by the lecturers. No end in sight to strike at UNIBEN Feelers from the University of Benin (UNIBEN), on Tuesday, indicated that lecturers and students of the institution are not being moved by the order of the government. Investigations conducted by the Nigerian Tribune during a visit to the campus of the institution at Ugbowo, Benin City, showed that though registers were opened as directed by the Federal Government, many academic staff members did not show their faces at the campus. However, a report indicated that some of the lecturers signed the register at the office of the Dean of Academics. Only a handful of students were also on the campus on Tuesday, just like any other day since the commencement of the strike, as the institution was preparing for the burial of the former president of the union, Professor Festus Iyayi, scheduled to begin today. In a press statement issued after a press conference, the UNIBEN chapter of ASUU expressed solidarity with the leadership of ASUU, recalling that similar tactics to break ASUU strke had failed in the past. The chapter condemned in strong terms what it described as “the lies and distortion of facts by the Supervising Minister of Education,” while calling on President Jonathan to “continue on the path of honour to dialogue with the union.” NBA intervenes, calls for dialogue The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), on Tuesday, called on both the Federal Government and ASUU to consider the students who are at the receiving end of their actions and come to terms with one another. The position of the NBA was contained in a statement issued by the president of the association, Okey Wali, in Abuja. The NBA urged the Federal Government to rescind the ultimatum given the lecturers to sack them if they did not return to work, adding that such threat would evidently not resolve the crisis. The body, therefore, called on the Federal Government to set aside the ultimatum given to ASUU, while it also called on ASUU to hearken to the appeals from several segments of the society and call off the strike “Besides the harm and dislocation of academic work, the enormous anti-social problems associated with keeping children away from school for this long, cannot be over-emphasised. “We encourage both parties to continue discussions and negotiations while the schools are in session in earnest. Negotiation is about give and take. The interest and welfare of the students must, at all times, remain paramount,” the NBA said.
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 06:29:39 +0000
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