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).
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