FG not sincere, strike continues –ASUU

PUBLIC university lecturers on Sunday insisted that
they would not return to the classrooms on Monday
(today).
They also accused the Federal Government of
insincerity in its bid to resolve its dispute with the
Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, confirmed this
on Sunday via a Short Message Service to an
enquiry by The PUNCH.
The Federal Government had through the Executive
Secretary of the National Universities Commission,
Prof. Julius Okojie, deferred its earlier ultimatum to
the lecturers to resume work on Monday (today) or
risk being sacked. The shift was to enable them to
participate in the burial of Prof. Festus Iyayi, a former
president of ASUU on Saturday.
Before this , the Supervising Minister of Education,
Nyesom Wike, had advised the striking lecturers to
return to work on or before December 4 or face
dismissal.
But ASUU had in a news bulletin to its chapters after
its meeting in Ekpoma, Edo State on Sunday, said
the Federal Government had not met its conditions
for suspending the over five months' strike.
When asked by one of our correspondents if the
members of the union would go back to work today
and if they had confirmed the N200bn the Federal
Government claimed to have deposited in a special
account at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Fagge simply
replied, "No to both questions."
ASUU had in the bulletin insisted that the
government threat to sack its members would not
break the union's resolve to pursue its action to a
logical conclusion.
A source privy to the meeting, said, "No Jupiter will
force us to go and teach until all the agreements are
documented. The Federal Government is not sincere.
If indeed the authorities have agreed, why will they
be afraid to document what has been agreed upon?
"Let the vice-chancellors, who can teach, go and do
so. But our members are determined not to sign any
attendance register tomorrow (today). The threat
does not bother us, as truth will always supercede
deception, lies and any form of intimidation."
The ASUU National Treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu,
who also spoke with one of our correspondents,
confirmed that the lecturers would not return to
work until the government met their demands.
He said, "Our position has not changed because we
are still on strike. When we met President Goodluck
Jonathan, we had a number of agreements but
when the Presidency communicated to us, we
noticed some gaps. We have written to the
government on our observations but up till now, it
has not responded.
"The only response from government
representatives was the accusation against us that
we are making new demands. This was after the
letter we wrote to the government was exposed to
the whole world.
"ASUU is not asking for anything new; what we are
saying is that government should perfect the
documentation binding the agreement we had with
it. We know the agreement we had with the
government and we will stand by it."
Aremu also accused the government of
inconsistency with the shift in ultimatum, noting that
it was playing politics with the death of Iyayi.
He added, "The government did not play any role in
the burial of Iyayi, who died in the struggle. The
Federal Government would have been more
responsive instead of threatening our members with
sacking. The military used this system and it did not
work. Why will it work in a democratic
environment? I don't think any right thinking
government will use threat to achieve peace."
On government's claim that it was ready to pay
salaries owed the striking teachers who returned to
work, Aremu said the decision was a part of the
ploy not to make things work in the education
sector.
He added, "This government does not want things to
work at all. We wrote to the government that we
noticed some gaps but instead of writing us back to
clear issues, it began to use threat as a weapon. I
don't think anyone who is worth the certificate he is
using as a lecturer will panic because of four
months' salaries. You only treat casual workers in
such way and not people with intellectual
endowment. ASUU members are not casual workers
so the position of Okojie will not shake us."
The Chairman of the University of Abuja chapter, Dr.
Clement Chup, also described the threat as "an
empty one."
He said, "We are still waiting for the government to
respond to our letter; until that is done, the strike
continues.
"When the December 4 deadline was given, I said 'I
dey laugh because I knew it would not work.' Now
that they have extended it, 'I still dey laugh' because
it will still not work. Because you (Federal
Government) are not ready to honour an agreement
and you will begin to threaten people with sacking;
it doesn't work that way."
His Nasarawa State University, Keffi, counterpart, Dr.
Theophilus Lagi, said, "It is only the National
Executive Council of the ASUU that could take the
decision to suspend the strike."
He said lecturers in the school would stay away from
the classrooms since the NEC of ASUU had yet to
suspend the strike.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe and Okojie , had
last Tuesday, claimed that the Federal Government
had deposited the N200bn promised as funding to
universities in an account with the CBN.
The amount is for renewal of infrastructure in the
nation's public universities.
But the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of
Education, Simeon Nwakaudu, expressed optimism
that many lecturers would resume work today.
He said, "By tomorrow (today), we will know where
we go from there. Let us wait and see what happens.
Many ASUU members have contacted their
respective vice-chancellors and indicated their
readiness to work."
Meanwhile, the Acting General Secretary of the
Nigeria Labour Congress, Mr. Chris Uyot, on Sunday,
said the leadership of the NLC would hold a crucial
meeting with the leaders of ASUU on Monday (today).