The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Femi Gbajabiamila, has written to the Academic Staff Union of Universities asking for a meeting with the union on Tuesday, September 20, Saturday PUNCH has learnt.

 

In a letter signed by the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Yahaya Danzarta, and addressed to the president of ASUU, the speaker expressed his concern over the failed negotiations between the Federal Government and the union.

 

The letter which was exclusively sighted by our correspondent in Abuja was titled ‘NASS/HR/LEG/03/11/065’. It was dated September 15, 2022.

 

The letter partly reads, “The Hon. Speaker House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, hereby invites you to a stakeholders meeting towards finding a lasting solution to the lingering strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities since February 2022.

 

“The House of Representatives is deeply concerned about the renewed strike which seems to have defied all efforts made to find solution or reach agreement between the Federal Government and the striking university lecturers.

 

 

“The House is more worried by the negative consequences of the strike on the future and quality of education of our teeming youths who have been kept at home for the past six months despite the intervention of the House and several well-meaning Nigerians over time to see that the matter was resolved.

 

“In the light of the foregoing, the House hereby requests for another opportunity to come together with stakeholders and leadership of ASUU to seek an amicable resolution without prejudice to the fact that the matter is already in the Industrial Court.”

 

The letter also asked ASUU to submit a written presentation of its perspective on the matter to the House before the day of the meeting.

 

Students threaten protest

Meanwhile, the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students has vowed to take its protest to the international airports across the country and ground their activities.

 

Speaking in Akure , the Ondo State capital, the Chairman, NANS National Task Force on ‘End ASUU Strike Now’, Ojo Olumide, said students were already tired of pleading with both parties over the need to end the strike.

 

According to him, the four-day shutdown of busy highways and expressways had been a success, hence the move to disrupt international travels as from September 19, 2022 in order for “the bourgeois and the government to feel the pains the students have been passing through in the past seven months.”

 

He said, “We shall begin another round of protest next week by storming the airspaces on Monday, September 19, 2022 to #OccupyTheAirports#. We want to let the world know about the pains and anguish students are going through.

 

“Nigerian students whose parents create the commonwealth cannot continue to be suffering at home alongside our lecturers while the few who gain from our sweats and blood have their kids abroad enjoying.

 

“We call on students to rise and join us as we take our destinies into our hands. Our demands remain consistently clear and simple. We call on ASUU leadership fora meeting as soon as possible to discuss solidarity actions and plan for the next phase of the struggles.

 

“Nigerian students are not subjected to security agencies and we haven’t seen any step from them to avert ASUU strike.

 

 

“Being on the road for the past four days and had garnered a lot of solidarity, grounding the airport is for us to get solidarity and we will keep on grounding the local and international airports and they know the effect of us grounding the airport.

 

“The only thing we request for them is to open our campuses back. They should give enough budgetary allocation, we are not asking for 26 percent we are asking for 22 percent. We pass a vote of no confidence on the Ministers of Labour and Education.

 

“We call on the Buhari government to pay all outstanding arrears and salaries of the lecturers. The policy of “No Work No Pay” is a fascist one; it is, therefore, condemnable and unacceptable to all the millions of students in Nigeria.

 

“We will, by this statement, not beg again. We shall be mobilising all students to shut down the country. No Education! No Movement!

 

Slamming the Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, over his purported comment on the barricade of federal roads by the students, Olumide noted that the strike had continued to linger due to the absence of children of the political class in public universities.

CREDIT: THE OSUN POSITIVE 

The raging dispute between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that has kept many universities shut for more than seven months will shift to the Industrial court next Monday.

 

ASUU had embarked on strike since February 15 to protest alleged decay of infrastructure at the various institutions, as well as neglect of the welfare of its members.

 

A reliable source at the Federal Ministry of Labour told THISDAY last night that the ministry’s Trade Dispute Department had filed a case before the Industrial Arbitration Court in Abuja and that the hearing would commence next Monday.

 

According to the source, “The federal government has filed a case at the Industrial Court challenging the continued strike by the university teachers. This is in conformity with Section 17 of the Trade Dispute Act.”

 

There have been series of negotiations between the federal government and the ASUU leadership but all ended in stalemate without a tangible outcome.

 

However, talks between the federal government and ASUU finally hit the rocks last Tuesday after both sides met at the National University Commission’s office in Abuja.

 

The federal government had said that it would not sign any other agreement it cannot implement.

 

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, disclosed this during a meeting of Pro-Chancellors and Vice Chancellors of Federal Universities, held at the NUC’s office.

 

Adamu said President Muhammadu Buhari had warned the government’s team involved in the negotiation with ASUU against signing an agreement that the government would not be able to fulfil.

 

The minister said the government had offered the union a 23.5 per cent salary increase “for all categories of the workforce in federal universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35 per cent upward review. He said the government had also promised that N150 billion “shall be provided for in the 2023 Budget as funds for the revitalisation of federal universities, to be disbursed to the Institutions in the First Quarter of the year.”

 

Also, the government said N50 billion would be provided “for in the 2023 Budget for the payment of outstanding arrears of earned academic allowances, to be paid in the first quarter of the year.”

 

However, ASUU and three other university unions have rejected the offer, describing it's as unsatisfying 

Credit: The Osun Positive 

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is holding its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting Sunday evening, in Abuja to decide the next line of action on its industrial action that has entered 167th day.

The strike, which commenced on February 14 2022 seems endless as several meetings, interventions, consultations and FG-ASUU negotiations, have been futile.

The ongoing strike by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will continue as members of the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union did not consider the option of suspending the action at its meeting which ended in the early hours of Monday in Abuja

The Federal Government has appealed to the Nigeria Labour Congress to cancel its planned protest over the prolonged strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and other university-based unions.

 

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, made the appeal on Thursday at a meeting with the leadership of the NLC in his office.

 

Also in attendance at the meeting were the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Kachollom Daju.

Ngige in his speech, updated the labour leaders on the efforts so far made by the Federal Government to resolve the impasse in the university system, saying that efforts were still ongoing.

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, on Tuesday, slammed the Federal Government for failing to prioritise education in Nigeria, stating that the woes bedevilling the sector will not end until the ruling elite are forced to train their children in public schools.

Osodeke, while dismissing the two-week ultimatum issued to ministers by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to end the strike, stated that ASUU had concluded negotiations with the government and was only waiting for the ministers to sign the agreement reached with the university lecturers.

The ASUU President, while decrying the brain drain in the education sector, noted that Nigeria is also losing its professionals in the medical line to other countries.

Osodeke, while featuring on Today Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, said the lecturers were ready to return to the classrooms as long as the government fulfils its part of the bargain.

On Buhari’s ultimatum, he said, “As a union, we also look at history – look at past precedents, until the issues are resolved, I don’t believe we…this will not even make any difference because this is not the first ultimatum given on this strike. Remember, when the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council met with the President on the 1st of February, they also set up a three-man committee to quickly resolve this issue within one month; and that was the Chief of Staff (to the President), the Minister of Labour (Employment and Productivity, Senator Chris Ngige) and the Minister of Education (Adamu Adamu). That committee didn’t invite us for a meeting until we rolled over the strike in May, that was when they invited us for a meeting. The NLC issued an ultimatum and that committee called a meeting.”

Osodeke recalled that after the negotiation, ASUU gave the government six weeks. “That was 22nd of May, we are (now) in July. We agreed on six weeks. That has expired, nothing happened. Now, (it is) another two weeks. Where we are, if we are serious, if we really want to resolve these problems, it should not take two days,” he stated.

The ASUU President went on the list other instances where the government side failed to report back or invite the union to scheduled meetings in the ongoing talks.

Reacting to Buhari’s “enough is enough” declaration on ASUU strike when governors in the ruling All Progressives Congress paid Sallah homage to the President in his Daura country home, Osodeke alleged that Buhari was being misled by those briefing him on the issue. “When people go to misinform the President, you (will) get what he is saying. When the Minister of Labour goes to misinform the President, you will see what he is saying,” he said.

The ASUU President recalled the government kept on setting up committees after committees, with their recommendations becoming inconclusive.

According to him, the lecturers are out to ensure improvement in the welfare and working condition in the academia, noting that what is happening in Nigeria is not recorded in other countries. “That is why a new professor earns less than N300,000,” he stated.

When asked about the average salary of a professor, Osodeke said, “The average salary of a professor at the bar today is about N400,000 a month – the highest rank, after you have spent about 10 years as a professor. When you are starting, it is about N300,000 as a professor. At the end, you earn N400,000.”

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He added, “But when you compare it to other areas – the high impact areas, the most high-impact area in the whole world is academics, not NNPC, not Central Bank (of Nigeria). It is academics, where you take your best brains to; those who make First Class. For you to be a Lecturer 1, you must have Second Class Upper. That is your best brain and that is what they look out for in the world. And in this country, when you look at our history in the 60s, 70s, 80s, the only public servants that earned more than a professor was the Chief Justice of the Federation. A professor earned more than a minister, even more than a permanent secretary. You can check the records. Today, they have been relegated. They are not even earning anything. Check what a senator earns.

“We are not even talking about the Nigerian system, university is universal. When you go to universities in Ghana, you will see Nigerians working there, Indians, Asians. In Nigeria, like I said, in the 60s when they were well paid, when you went to Nigerian universities you would see people from Europe, America working in Nigerian universities. There was pay parity. But today, they have all left. Even Ghanaians, they used to be here; they have left. Today, you don’t see Africans coming to Nigerian universities.”

According to the ASUU President, when comparing the salary of a lecturer in Nigeria it should be done with the African average. He said of lecturers could not be attracted with the pay in Nigeria, it should attract First Class graduates to teaching in the universities and not “go to the banks or the NNPC.”

Osodeke noted, “It was the idea in those days. If you had First Class, no company would take you, you would want to work in the university. To ensure that those are already on ground…I can tell you…look at the history, as we are speaking now there is no year we don’t lose 400 to 500 lecturers going abroad. We call it brain drain. And none is coming (to Nigeria). Just like the doctors, they are leaving and none is coming in, which means you use your money to train your doctor here and he (or she) leaves the country. The nation is losing. You train your academics here, they leave the country to other countries where they know the value of education.”

The ASUU President also faulted the claim by the government that it had paid all workers in the universities the consequential minimum wage adjustment since 2019. “As I am speaking to you, all the universities of agriculture, nobody has been paid a dime. The payment was made in May but till now, they have not paid anybody in the universities of agriculture. In the universities where they paid, they selectively paid people: they paid some and left some, paid some half and paid some double.”

He stated that it was part of the irregularities that were recorded with the payment of lecturers under the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, which ASUU has condemned.

Osodeke also faulted the claim that a faction had broken out of ASUU and decided to discontinue the strike. “There is none. They should name them. Which university? We are together,” he noted.

The ASUU President stated, “Our stand today is that this system has to change…change in such a way that we will get to a stage where the child of a school teacher, a driver, a photographer will enter a classroom and sit next to the child of a minister or a governor – in the same classroom in a Nigerian university. Even in the hostel, a child of Okinbaloye (the presenter) sleep with the child of the President in the same hostel, in the same bed. That is our idea.

“What we have right now is a class struggle and we should know it. You have a group who ensure that their children, with our resources, are paid, go to good environments, good hostels and classrooms where you have access to laboratory equipment, and then you leave the ones to rotten so that the children of the other people who are about 90 per cent will just be there, taking lecturers across the windows, sitting on bare floors; so that when their children come back to the country with good education, they take the juicy jobs.”

Osodeke pointed out that public servants and others in the ruling elite must be restricted to public schools for education to develop in the country. “It is the priority that you place on education. When you check the world today…go to Ghana; Ghanaians were here before and we said ‘Ghana must go,’ but now they are telling us ‘Nigerians must go.’ Why? Because they funded their education. In Ghana, they give 16 to 20 per cent of their budget to education on a yearly basis. In South Africa, it is the same thing. That is why today, Nigerians pay not less than N200bn to Ghanaian universities as school fees,” he said.

On the way forward, The ASUU President stated, “The government should prioritise education – as the Number 1 priority in the country because all of us here, we must pass through the schools. Now that you have killed it, we are now wasting our money on foreign countries. Last year, as claimed by the CBN, Nigerians spent N1.6tn as school fees in other countries in the world. That would have turned around all the universities in Nigeria and bring them to standard, where people will be coming from outside the country. But now, people go outside but nobody comes in.

“This strike that universities have shut down, those who run the affairs of Nigeria – the National Assembly, the Executive arm (of the government), they don’t have any problem. Their children are not here; their families are not here. If they were here; if the children of all the ministers and all the senators are all here in our public universities, this strike would not last two days. When the aviation people wanted to shut down the country, the National Assembly called them immediately and settled them immediately overnight because they all fly; they cannot pass the roads again. They fly so they quickly resolved it. But the universities are closed.”

CREDIT: THE PUNCH 

Plans are underway by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to stage a national protest against the ongoing strike by university workers. The protest could, however, snowball into a nationwide down tool, if government’s inaction continues.

A communique issued at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja did not specify when the protest would commence.

NLC President Ayuba Wabba and General Secretary Emma Ugboajah signed the communique.

NLC said: “Within the span of the subsisting 21-day ultimatum given by Congress, NLC will hold national protests against the current strike action affecting students of Nigeria’s public universities, and occasioned by government’s failure to honour agreement reached with trade unions in our universities.”

“The protest is to draw the attention of government to the inherent catastrophe in the emerging culture of social apartheid in our society, especially as marked by prolonged lockout of students from working class and poor homes, while children of the rich continue their academic pursuits uninterrupted.”

Congress said: “If at the end of the national protest and the 21-day ultimatum, the Federal Government still fails to resolve the industrial crises in Nigeria’s universities, the Congress would be left with no other option but to embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike action, in solidarity with our affiliates in the universities and with Nigerian students whose future and wellbeing are being robbed.”

The meeting called on the governments of Taraba, Cross River and Zamfara States to immediately commence payment of the arrears of national minimum wage owed their workers. It also called on the Abia State government to immediately clear the backlog of pension arrears owed.

Adelaja Odukoya, the (ASUU) Lagos zone’s coordinator has stated that enough will not be enough until President Muhammadu Buhari does the needful and act presidentially by signing the renegotiated agreement among others.

Odukoya disclosed this on Tuesday, July 12, via his Twitter handle while responding to President Buhari’s statement ‘enough is enough’, urging striking university lecturers to call off their strike.

“Sadly Mr. President, enough will not be enough until you do the needful and act presidentially by signing the renegotiated agreement before your excellence authorise the end ruinous, evil and exploitative Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and the adoption of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS),” Odukoya said

He also asked Buhari to pay outstanding allowances, stop the proliferation of universities, and ensure the proper funding of public universities.

The ASUU zonal leader pointed out that the reason enough cannot be enough as far as the union’s strike is concerned is because President Buhari has failed to act in his capacity as the president to reposition the decaying and dying public university education in Nigeria.

Odukoya stated that Nigerian lecturers remain some of the poorest paid scholars not only in Africa, but the world.

“Our universities are unattractive to students and scholars from the globe; universities in the country are made constituency projects and mushroomed for political exigencies; Nigeria universities, no thanks to IPPIS are run as government parastatals, Nigeria universities are seen as profit-centres where government functionaries can obtain money to fund its executive gastrominal greed,” he noted

Besides, the president allowed agents of the government to intimidate and oppress the lecturers for demanding what is supposed to be their right.

“This struggle too shall continue despite the state tyrannical disposition which has since manifested in the use of starvation as an instrument of oppression and subjugation against our members by the refusal to pay our salaries in the last five months,” he stated.

Odukoya, however, regretted the pains the strike has caused many Nigerian students, and families, but explained that the industrial action was induced by the federal government’s nonchalant attitude and indifference to the demands of ASUU, hence, failing to nip it in the bud.

“It is with painful and heartfelt amusement that we received your comical statement and laughable call yesterday that “enough is enough” on the almost five month old strike action of our union; ASUU occasioned and forced on us by the crass insensitivity, nonchalant disposition, ineptitude and crass indifference to the face of public university education in the country under your leadership.

“That all other unions in the nation’s public university system as well as unions in other tertiary educational levels in the country are also on strike for similar reasons belied and exposed the ridiculous disposition and propaganda to paint our union black in the face of the Nigerian public who has seen through the shenanigan, deliberate systematic and orchestrated agenda of the present government.

“This is not only to undermine but to comprehensively destroy public university education in unpatriotic obedience to the slavish and destructive command of the neoliberal high command to which the soul of this administration and its forbears seems to be irrevocably sold.

“The fact that the president unfortunately and sadly taken and embraced an attitude of mute indifference and unedifying quietude in the face of calamitous consequences a neglected education sector could foist on generations of Nigeria, including those yet unborn is a clear signpost of leadership failure,” he said.

He called on the federal government to be prepared to pay the needed sacrifices rather than global junketing, family egoistic ceremonies and partisan political activities.

“Mr. President sir, for ASUU, this strike action should not have lasted beyond the first week after it was declared, because the issues at stake were neither new nor do they require rocket science to resolve given that they had been MoUs and MoAs as well as a duly renegotiated ASUU-FG agreement completed way back in May 13, 2020 before your government which you and your administration neglected and refused to implement and signed,” he noted.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has disagreed with the Vice the acting Vice-Chancellor of Kaduna State University (KASU), Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa over the plan to re-open the institution.

KASU, like most other public owned universities in Nigeria has been under lock and key in the past five months over strike by university lecturers under the aegis of ASUU.

But Prof. Ashafa told the News Agency of Nigeria in an interview on Friday that KASU will will reopen on July 13, to enable its final year students to write their examinations and graduate.

Ashafa, added that the state government planned to provide foreign scholarships to students with outstanding Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

He said that the students, in substantial numbers, upon graduation, would be sent abroad for their masters’ degree.

The VC added that the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two African universities, where the students would be admitted.

He said that the admission processes would be closed in September and the students had not written their second semester examination because of the protracted industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“As parents, we thought that we should fast track the resumption process so that the students can write their examinations, obtain their results, and submit to the scholarship board to process their admissions,” he said.

He said that the school management have resolved, after a meeting with critical managers of the university, to reopen on July 13, with the second semester examination scheduled to commence July 25.

The VC explained that critical managers of the university, which include Deans and HODs shoulder the affairs of teaching and research in the university.

“The Deans and HODs are the critical managers of the university whose subordinates will have to be engaged to conduct the examination, supervise, and process the results.

“It is on this basis we are confident that we will be able to convince the state government to pay staff salaries that have been withheld,” he said

He appealed to the leadership of ASUU, KASU branch, to understand with the university for the sake of the students, so that they can graduate and benefit from the available opportunity for foreign scholarships.

Ashafa recalled that the previous management of the university had attempted a dialogue with the leadership of the university’s chapter of ASUU but yielded no result because of the frosty relationship.

He revealed that the current management had directed that the query issues to some executive members of the union should be withdrawn.

The VC, on behalf of the management and the university Senate, apologised to the leadership of ASUU over the incident.

He also called on the students to return to school and continue with their studies, adding that no students would be prevented from writing examinations on account of failure to pay school fees.

The VC explained that after the increase in school fees in 2021, only about 25 per cent of the students made full payment, while some made part payment and others could not pay anything.

“We will not stop any student from writing the examination, even if the person has not paid the school fees.

“What we will do is that the affected students will not see their results and will not be allowed to register for the next academic session.

“However, the Executive Secretary of State Scholarship and Loans Board, Mr Rilwan Hassan, had told us that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has approved N500 million to pay the school fees of certain categories of students.”

NAN recalls that the state government in April 2021 increased the university’s school fees between N24,000 and N26,000 to N150,000 and N500,000.

But Chairman of ASUU in the university, Dr Peter Adamu, said he was not aware of the plan to reopen the university on July 13 by KASU management.

“In fact, I am just hearing this from you, and I want to make it categorically clear that we are not a party to this arrangement,” Adamu said. (NAN)

Tags: ASUU Kaduna State University (KASU) Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa

CREDITS: PM NEWS

Medical lecturers in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria,  UMTH branch, have demanded the release of their withheld salaries by the federal government.

The lecturers, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said they were not part of the ongoing industrial action embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) since February 14, 2022, and were therefore demanding the immediate release of their withheld salaries from March to June 2022.

The medical lecturers stated that they have been patriotically doing their work, which includes teaching, training, and conducting examinations for medical students throughout the period of the ongoing strike. They further reminded the ministers of their earlier letter in March 2022, where they had informed them of their resolve to remain at work, notwithstanding the strike declared by ASUU.

This they said was done in case the Federal Government decided to stop the salaries of ASUU members.

It was gathered that medical lecturers in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, ATBUTH, Bauchi, and Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, UDUTH, Sokoto had also pulled out of the strike.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has challenged the federal government to accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform for it to call off the ongoing strike.

ASUU national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osedeke, who said this while speaking on Channels Television on Monday night, said the strike will continue unless government accept UTAS and honour the 2009 agreement.

It would be recalled that the ASUU strike action, which started on February 14, 2022 has entered 140th day this Monday.

ASUU has been at loggerheads with the federal government, citing the refusal of the latter to honour the 2009 agreement it entered with the Union.

Its demands in the agreements include condition of service of University lecturers to be reviewed every five years, issue of salaries and allowances, revitalisation of public universities, among other issues, University Transparency Accountability Solution and the inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) payment platform.

Osodeke said, “Let government tell us they have finished testing the UTAS and sign the agreement, then tomorrow we will call off the strike.

“We challenge the government, when would they sign the agreement? When would they accept UTAS? These are the two questions we should ask Nigerian government,” he stated.

NECO postpones entrance examinations into Varsity's.

The National Examination Council (NECO) has postponed the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) entrance examination into the 104 unity colleges established and operated by the Nigerian government.

The culture of sudden postponement of the examination has been practised by the examination body in the last couple of years, as a way of encouraging “states with low registration of candidates the opportunity to register their candidates”

In a statement on Wednesday, Azeez Sani, NECO’s head of the information and public relations division, said the examination, earlier scheduled for Saturday, 23rd April has been moved to Saturday, 7th May 2022.

The statement read in parts: “The National Examinations Council (NECO) has rescheduled the 2022 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) which is conducted for admission into Federal Unity Colleges from 23rd April 2022 to 7th May 2022.

“The Examination was rescheduled to give states with low registration of candidates the opportunity to register their candidates for the examination.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has used a total of 1,423 days to go on strike since the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999.

This means the Body(ASUU) has used almost 4 years to boycott classes to press there Demands on the Federal Government

Reports says that the strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities entered its 140th day on Monday (today), while the strike declared by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and other Allied Institutions, which began on March 25, 2022 also entered the 68th day today.

While the National Executive Council of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics is currently meeting in Jigawa State after calling off a two-week warning strike, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union just commenced a two-month strike.

In a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, noted that the government’s failure to meet ASUU’s demands, implement the agreement it had with the union and satisfactorily resolve the issues, has kept poor Nigerian children at home while the children of the country’s politicians attend private schools.

Oluwadare said, “Inequalities in education have a rolling effect, leading to even more and continued inequalities in the future.

“Apart from being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right. Education creates the voice through which rights can be claimed and protected, and without education, people lack the capacity to achieve valuable functioning as part of the living.

“If people have access to education, they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. Education gives people the ability to access information detailing the range of rights that they hold together with the government’s obligations.”

The workers of the Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo, Ondo State have declared that the campus of the institution would not have peace if the Federal Government fails to appoint a vice chancellor for the institution.

The workers had earlier protested the alleged failure of the Federal Government to appoint a vice chancellor after the institution had been upgraded to a university from a College of Education status. The non-teaching staff unions of the school – the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education of Nigeria, the National Association of Academic Technologists of Nigeria and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities Associated Institutions, vowed to continue the protest until the federal government heeds their call.

The protesters disclosed that the current Provost of the school, Dr Samuel Akintunde, had been given another term of four years to be provost instead of appointing a VC. The action, they said, was to retain the institution’s status as a college of education. One of the leaders of the protesters and leader of the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education of Nigeria of the institution, Comrade Obeyo Cletus, said the federal government had refused to regard the institution as a university six months after it had been upgraded as the principal officers have not been appointed, particularly the vice chancellor.

He said , “We are here as teaching staff of this institution. Since January this year that the university has been upgraded and gazetted to be a university, we have not got a vice chancellor. We are telling the government that we need our university; we need our vice chancellor. Enough is enough. “The head of this institution now is a provost and a provost cannot head a university. Everything we are doing here amount to illegality, because we are not a university yet without a vice chancellor. We have written letters to all stakeholders about the matter and in one month time and nothing is being done, there would be no peace on this campus.” The three unions in a congress held after the protest accused the governing council of the Adeyemi College of Education of frustrating the process of taking off of the university despite the signing of the bill that upgraded the institution into law by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The communique read in part, “The position of the governing council is working against the stand of the Federal Government of Nigeria as indicated in the university gazette. The governing council is hereby challenged to have negated the Federal Government of Nigeria’s position. The unions observed with dismay that the governing council concealed information from members of staff as regards the university status and used that to reappoint the College Provost and Registrar to torpedo the take-off of the University, despite that Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, is no longer in existence by law. “The act of the Governing Council was illegal and dereliction of functions. The official gazette empowers the governing council to still continue in office as the council of the university but not as Council of College of Education. Hence, such provision negates the decision of the governing council to re-appoint the provost and the registrar for a second term in office when there is no more College of Education.”

Also, in the communique, the congress gave the FG 30 days ultimatum to ensure “immediate take-off of the university as established by the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the university should have taken off since December 23, 2021 when accented into Law by President Muhammadu Buhari).” They also called for the ” immediate reversal of the reappointment of the provost and the college registrar for a second term. The official gazette should be fully implemented with immediate effect. The Federal Government of Nigeria should honour her laws and act accordingly.”

CREDIT: THE PUNCH