“No going back” – ASUU

Prof. Festus Iyayi.

The Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) has reiterated its vow not to comprise on the ongoing strike across all federal and state universities in the federation, saying the action was embarked upon to save the education sector from total collapse.
Speaking on Monday, Dr. Beke Sese, the Chairman of ASUU’s Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State chapter, also dismissed suggestions that the industrial action has a political undertone, noting specifically that it was not intended to disrupt President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.
ASUU ordered its members out of the classrooms on July 1, over the failure of the government to honour an agreement made in 2009. Mediation from different quarters have stalled and both parties have failed to find a common ground for compromise with a view to resolving the four-month-old strike.

“This is the first time that ASUU members have embarked on a protracted strike, which centres on funding of the universities and improvement of the infrastructure. The funds so far released by the Federal Government are grossly inadequate. The 2009 agreement must be fully implemented,” Sese said.

“The Federal Government has reneged on its promise. It is sad that in 2013, we are still talking about the same 2009 agreement. Strike has never been a good thing, but it is inevitable in this circumstance.

“There is a deliberate and systematic destruction of public universities in the country. It must stop forthwith. The poor state of affairs in Nigerian public universities has been making wealthy Nigerians send their children and wards to private universities in the country or better-equipped universities overseas.”

Sese pointed out that with the way ASUU was organised, the union’s president, in spite of where he hails from, would not be able to call out the members to embark on strike or suspend strike without recourse to its National Executive Committee (NEC).

“The current ASUU strike is not politically motivated. ASUU members are not being sponsored by politicians. None of the members can sway other members towards his or her political inclination, since ASUU is not a political organisation,” he said.

“Imputing political motive to the strike is a calculated attempt by some persons to deploy propaganda gimmicks to the cause of the university teachers, in order to divert attention from the real issues that informed the strike.

“When the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, was ASUU president, the members did not compromise when there was a similar strike during the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

Sese also stated that while the public universities in Nigeria were being allowed to rot, the private ones were flourishing and springing up everywhere.

He noted that the Federal Government’s adamant posture on the 2009 agreement was a reflection of the lip service being paid to university education in the country.

Sese stressed that the time for the Federal Government to accord priority to the education sector was now, noting that arm-twisting the ASUU members or non-payment of their salaries would never work.
Meanwhile, Prof. Festus Iyayi who spoke to Today’s Telegraph on phone also dismissed the idea that the present ASUU strike is been politically influenced to disrupt President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

The former ASUU Chairman said it is only President Goodluck Jonathan that is manipulating the protracted strike.

“ASUU is not on strike, it is the government that is on strike, the President should stop appealing to ASUU, the president should implement the agreement, and ASUU will go back to work.”

He further said, “if it will take the federal government the next six years to implement the agreement, ASUU will be on strike for the next six years. The FG made an agreement and all we are saying is for them to honor it, but it seems the government is calling for anarchy.

Iyayi appealed to students to support ASUU on its quest, as it is for the benefit of the education sector.

Student reactions

Reacting to the protracted strike, Amaka Okafor, a student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, said, it would be a total waste of time if ASUU calls off the strike without the Federal government implementing the 2009 agreement.

The Unizik student further said she is in full support of the ongoing strike if it will save the education sector from total collapse.

Comfort Ihueze, a mathematics student of the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, said it will be a shame on the side of ASUU if they simply went back into the classrooms without the government meeting up with the needs and demands of striking lecturers and students.

“We have lost so much in the last 3 months, and this will cause some of us extra year, so I don’t expect ASUU to just call of the strike, 3 months is not 3days nor 3 weeks, it’s a semester in the school calendar.”

By Ikechukwu Muomah
Source:telegraphng