National President, ASUU, Nasir Issa-Fagge
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 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.” Read more
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