THE
Federal Government may have decided to wield the big stick on the
striking university lecturers, by threatening them with mass sack if
they fail to resume back to classrooms on or before December 4.Riding on the crest of earlier directive by the pro-chancellors of federal universities for the vice chancellors to reopen the universities to students for full commencement of academic activities, the Federal Government also directed the vice chancellors to ensure that universities are immediately reopened for academic and allied activities.
Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, while addressing newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday, said government had to take the hard stance, after the review of the entire situation, adding that it had concluded that the continuation of the strike was an attempt by ASUU to sabotage all efforts to address issues.
He stressed that any academic staff member who failed to resume on or before December 4 automatically ceased to be a staffer of the institution, while vice chancellors, according to him, had been directed to advertise such vacancies internally and externally in their institutions.
Wike said the Federal Government was miffed that after fruitful deliberation with President Goodluck Jonathan at a meeting of “good” 13 hours in the Villa, to ensure that all issues were exhausted, ASUU came up with fresh conditions for calling off its five-month-old strike outside what was contained in the memorandum drawn from the meeting.
It is recalled that ASUU, after its secret National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, last weekend, had given the Federal Government two weeks to begin the implementation of the N200 billion it pledged to inject into the system and distribute such within the stipulated time frame.
ASUU equally said government should renegotiate the 2009 agreement by 2014 and that the Attorney General of the Federation be made signatory to the memorandum of understanding (MoU), after it was agreed in the meeting with the president that the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Education should sign the MoU.
Wike, while given the rationale for the latest move, said government had satisfied all the conditions and obligations with respect to the 2009 agreement, saying “it was becoming obvious that the union is taking the presidency and Nigerians for a ride.”
The government has, accordingly, summoned all the vice chancellors of its universities to Abuja for a meeting today, for further briefing on the decision of the government.
He added that such development posed danger to the education system, the future of Nigerian youths and national development, just as he directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to monitor the compliance of the directive by the various universities.
Wike tasked vice chancellors to ensure staffers who resumed for work were provided with the enabling environment for academic and allied activities.
Indications, however, emerged in Abuja that ASUU leadership was holding meeting at a location it could not be confirmed as of press time.
Threat has no effect, laughable —ASUU
Reacting, the national treasurer of ASUU, Ademola Aremu, said the union would suspend the strike within 24 hours, once the resolutions submitted to President Jonathan were accepted.
He said the union had asked Jonathan to facilitate the endorsement of resolutions reached with him and signed by high ranking government official, preferably the Attorney-General of the Federation, but not a permanent secretary.
Aremu also said the striking lecturers wanted the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for public universities to be warehoused with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the benefiting universities.
Dr Aremu said the threat by the Federal Government did not hold water, as it had confirmed the fears that the government could not be trusted.
“With the latest action, the Federal Government has shown that it is not committed to all it has been saying. We are saying that since we agreed at the meeting that the sum of 200 billion is for 2012 and 2013 revitalisation, the Federal Government should deposit same in the Central Bank of Nigeria. We are already in November and December is around the corner. If they don’t do that now, when do they want to do it?
“We are also saying the non-victimisation clause should be included as agreed, while the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement should be included as agreed with the president,” he said.
The ASUU chief said the military tried threatening the union and failed, adding that this one would fail again.
“They can re-open the school. ASUU did not shut down the universities. It was the school management that ordered the students to go back home,” he said.
He noted that ASUU appreciated the intervention of the president, but then added that some of the resolutions reached with Jonathan were not included in the letter sent to the union.
Also reacting, ASUU chairman, University of Abuja branch, Mr Clement Chup, said the union could not be intimidated.
“The school can go ahead and ask students to resume, but we won’t do any work; we won’t teach them. It is not our responsibility to resume until ASUU decides,” he said.
In his reaction, chairman of University of Jos branch of the union, Dr Wannang Jangkam, said the strike could only be called off by the directive of the national body of the union.
Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune over the development, Dr Jangkam said the directive was just a mere position of the pro-chancellors and had no effect on the union, adding that ASUU could not take any position based on the position of the pro-chancellors.
According to him, the union was not worried on the ploy to break its rank on the struggle, adding that “we are committed to the struggle and it is for the betterment of the sector.”
When reached for comment, chairman of the University of Port Harcourt branch of ASUU, Professor Anthonia Okerengwo, said she was yet to get the detail of the said order.
She also said she would need to be briefed by the national president of the union before she could make any comment on it.
“I just heard about it too, I’ve not even read anything about it and yet to understand the content, so I won’t be able to give any reaction yet. I will wait to be briefed by my national president first,” Okerengwo said.
Chairman, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) branch of ASUU, Dr Ifeanyichukwu Abada, on Thursday, said the lecturers were not worried by the return-to-work order by the Federal Government.
Abada told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Nsukka that the union was not dealing with the minister who gave the order, but with President Jonathan.
He said it was unfortunate that rather than pursue amicable resolution of the crisis, the minister was issuing a “military order.”
Chairman, University of Lagos (UNILAG) branch of ASUU, Dr Oghenekaro Ogbinaka, told NAN that the development was strange and laughable.
He said that this was so, considering the fact that the union was yet to get back to the government, after their deliberations with President Jonathan.
He said “our reaction is simple. Let us just wait for the seven days to come around.
“We are not going to fall to that blackmail. Now, which one is better: government acceding to our demands or issuing out threats?”
The University of Benin and Ambrose Alli University (AAU) branches of ASUU described as laughable, the order by the Federal Government.
They said they were waiting to see how the order would be enforced by the government.
Chairman of UNIBEN-ASUU, Dr Tony Monye, in a telephone conversation with the Nigerian Tribune, said the government could keep its job because they had resolved that they could not continue working under present conditions.
His AAU counterpart, Professor Fred Esumeh, said the minister could only give directives to university management and not to union members, adding that it was not the responsibility of ASUU to re-open universities.
UNILAG faction backs FG
The anti-strike faction of ASUU in the University of Lagos, on Thursday, expressed its total support for the resumption ultimatum and sack threat issued on striking lecturers nationwide by the Federal Government.
The faction also denied being sponsored by the government.
The group, led by two members of UNILAG ASUU-NEC, had parted ways with the mainstream ASUU, over its continued participation in the strike, as it issued the latter an ultimatum on Monday to pull out by the end of this week.
Leader of the breakaway faction, Dr Emmanuel Ogbeide, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune on phone, was confident that UNILAG would resume before the expiration of the ultimatum, while maintaining that the sack of those who refused to comply would be lawful.
Ogbeide, who alongside another leader of the faction, Dr Adeyemi Daramola, had engaged the ASUU leadership in war of words, described their colleagues who could not speak out against the strike but were complaining in private as hypocrites.
According to him, “UNILAG will surely resume work before December 4. The school governing council has the right to sack lecturers who did not conform with that decision.”
TRIBUNE
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