The stage
appears set for a long-running battle, with President Goodluck Jonathan
reportedly directing pro-chancellors to ensure compliance with the deadline.
of Universities (ASUU) President Nasir Isa Fagge told reporters in
Abuja that the teachers, who started their strike on July 1, will not back
down, “until the government implements the agreement”.
He
described the government deadline as “just a threat”.
Jonathan
has told pro-chancellors to ensure that willing lecturers and students return
to the campuses without fear.
A
highly-placed source in government, who confirmed this directive to our
correspondent, said the pro-chancellors were told to ignore ASUU, adding that
all Dr. Jonathan, a former teacher, wanted was positive result from the
campuses.
The source
said Jonathan warned the pro- chancellors not to compromise the government’s
position to terminate the strike.
Most of the
pro-chancellors, the source said, are on their way to their campuses to carry
out the presidential order.
He said:
“We were told by President Goodluck Jonathan to take charge of the
universities, meet with vice-chancellors and ensure that all the affected
institutions are opened for lectures on December 4 (tomorrow). That is the
directive and I, like many other pro-chancellors, are on our way.
“I do not
know if this is the best solution to the disturbing crisis in our tertiary
institutions, but I think we need to do something to stop the drift. We have
been given a directive and, as parents, it is our responsibility to see that
students are back in schools after four months of staying at home.”
The ASUU
President said: “The strike will end when government implements the agreement
reached with President Jonathan. We were given the assurance before that the
agreement will not be renegotiated just as Jonathan promised us when we
interacted with him in that 13-hour duration. We thank Mr. President for his patience,
but let us also do what is right.”
ASUU said
it requested at its meeting with the President that he should facilitate the
resolution of the issues as a way of concretising their understanding of the
agreed position.
The agreed
positions are that the:
•N200
billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation Fund for public universities shall
be deposited with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the
universities within two weeks;
•renegotiation
of the 2009 agreement in 2014 be included in the final document as agreed at
the discussion with Jonathan;
•non
–victimisation clause which is normally captured in all interactions of this
nature, be included in the final document; and that
•a new
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) shall be validly endorsed, signed by a
representative of government, preferably the Attorney General of the Federation
and a representative of ASUU, with the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress
(NLC) as a witness.
Isa said:
“Upon any sincere stretch of interpretation, it would be unreasonable to
suggest that this is a new demand. ASUU NEC’s position that the funds for
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.
“On the
renegotiation of the agreement in 2014, there was an agreement at the
interaction with the President that the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG agreement
of 2009 shall be undertaken in 2014. ASUU’s position that this shall be
included in the “resolutions” is a correct report of what actually transpired
and was agreed upon, and should be reconsidered. This is important, especially
in view of the fact that this agreement took place at the meeting with the
President and was pointed out to staff of the Ministry of Education who were
recording the agreements.”
Isa
stressed: “The resolution to end a strike since 1980s has always included the
provision that no one would be victimised for participating in the strike in
question. This is the position of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).”
He accused
Supervising Minister of Education Nyesome Wike of incompetence.
Past
government leaders, Isa said, also declared war on ASUU and the union did not
succumb.
He said a
pro- chancellor had been lying to President Jonathan that “the University of
Uyo shared the money sent by government to the university as earned allowance-
to all staff and still had enough to return to the government. We found that
this person lied.”
His words:
“The threat to sack all lecturers for exercising their right to strike was made
in 1993-1996 by Generals Babangida and Abacha regimes. Professor Ben Nwabueze,
who was the Minister of Education in General 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 20 years of national life have not
taught politicians and their government the simple lesson that the job of
lecturers is bound by the University statutes, which stipulate conditions for
employment, promotions and dismissal of lecturers at all levels. There are, at
present, in Nigeria over thirty thousand (30,000) academic staff, each of whom
has certain rights that cannot be pronounced away by any government or
Minister. That a Minister of Education would pronounce a threat of mass sack of
academic staff is a tragedy of huge proportion for Nigeria and Africa.
“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 mass sack as
a solution to 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!
“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, repeatedly, that the solution to
Nigerian’s social and economic crises is to kill public economic 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, Chief 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 the
Universities. Transcorp and the Airways. The way is being paved for privatisation
of education. Academic staff have a duty to defend the right of Nigerians to
sound public education. To succumb to the present threat by the Minister of
Education on behalf of Government is to give up on Nigeria. We in the academic
profession have no such intention.
“We
resisted Abacha’s dictatorship. We refused to succumb to Obasanjo/IMF attempts
to weaken public in favour of private universities. We convinced the late
President Umaru Yar’adua to keep faith with the interests of Nigerian youth and
desist from privatising education. We remember Obasanjo’s position that the
solution to ASUU’S resistance is to flood Nigeria with private universities.
“In spite
of all these, stretching from ASUU’s principled resistance since the military,
we have noticed with disgust how easy it is for ministers and governments to
take refuge in political blackmail. We shall never succumb to this. Our country
is our Union’s constituency.
“According
to the Needs Assessment Reports, here are the needs of Nigerian public
universities for academic staff: There is a total of 37,504 teaching staff
across all Nigerian universities.
The
majority of the universities are grossly understaffed. Generally speaking,
teaching staff distribution in the country, both by qualification and by rank
indicates that Nigeria’s university system is in crisis of manpower. Instead of
having not less than 80% of the academics with Ph.ds, only about 43%. And
instead of having about 75% of academics to be between senior lecturers and
professors, only about 44% are within the bracket while the remaining 56% are
not.”
Asked if
ASUU is willing to return to the negotiation table, Isa said: “There was never
a time we failed to come and discus. It is only where it becomes clear to us
that the dialogue has become a dialogue between the deaf and the dump. Under
that circumstance. no meeting.”
The Nation
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