Asuu Strike Update: Uniben Esut And OOU Teaching Staffs Vows Not To Resume

The Chairman, ASUU, University of Benin, Dr. Tony Monye-Emina said, “The strike has not been called off. The authority (of the institution) is following government’s directive; we are not shifting our stand. It is not a local strike.

“It is not true we are calling off the strike. How can we be holding a meeting tonight? The burial is going on and it continues tomorrow (today).”

Also, ASUU in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, vowed not to obey government’s order that lecturers should return to classroom on Monday.

The Chairman, ASUU, OOU chapter, Dr. Nasir Adesola said the lecturers would not succumb to threats by government to sack them.

Adesola, who is also the South-West Coordinator, ASUU, stressed that since the lecturers did not go on strike in the first instance because of government, they would not return to work by coercion from government.

He stated that the lecturers would only go back to the classroom when the government had met their demands.

“We didn’t go on strike because of government order. The reasons for which we embarked on the strike have not been discharged by the government. Those orders of government are just part of executive recklessness. We are not returning to work on Monday,” Adesola said.

Similarly, the ASUU Chairman in Enugu State University of Technology, Prof. Gab Agu, said lecturers would not resume on Monday. He said it was a rumour that the union would call of the strike.

He stated that the National Executive Council of ASUU would meet and agree before the strike could be called off.

Same with ASUU in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where the Chairman, Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, said only the ASUU NEC could announce the suspension of the strike.

Asuu Strike Update:Monday Ultimatum, Asuu Dares FG Again, Says Strike Continues

It was uncertain on Saturday whether the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities would call off its five-month-old strike, despite the Federal Government’s Monday ultimatum.

There were speculations that the university lecturers would suspend the strike after the burial ceremony for an ex-ASUU President, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who was killed in an accident involving the Kogi State governor’s convoy.

However, sources in the union who spoke to our correspondents on Saturday insisted that the strike continues.

The Chairman, ASUU, University of Benin, Dr. Tony Monye-Emina said, “The strike has not been called off. The authority (of the institution) is following government’s directive; we are not shifting our stand. It is not a local strike.

“It is not true we are calling off the strike. How can we be holding a meeting tonight? The burial is going on and it continues tomorrow (today).”

Also, ASUU in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State, vowed not to obey government’s order that lecturers should return to classroom on Monday.

The Chairman, ASUU, OOU chapter, Dr. Nasir Adesola said the lecturers would not succumb to threats by government to sack them.

Adesola, who is also the South-West Coordinator, ASUU, stressed that since the lecturers did not go on strike in the first instance because of government, they would not return to work by coercion from government.

He stated that the lecturers would only go back to the classroom when the government had met their demands.

“We didn’t go on strike because of government order. The reasons for which we embarked on the strike have not been discharged by the government. Those orders of government are just part of executive recklessness. We are not returning to work on Monday,” Adesola said.

Similarly, the ASUU Chairman in Enugu State University of Technology, Prof. Gab Agu, said lecturers would not resume on Monday. He said it was a rumour that the union would call of the strike.

He stated that the National Executive Council of ASUU would meet and agree before the strike could be called off.

Same with ASUU in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where the Chairman, Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, said only the ASUU NEC could announce the suspension of the strike.

The Governing Council of the University of Ibadan had on Friday, based on the directives of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities and the National Universities Commission, said the institution would be re-opened on January 4, 2014.

In the official bulletin of the university, which was signed by its Registrar and Secretary to the Council, Mr. Olujimi Olukoya, the council explained that the re-opening became necessary in view of the consideration of all matters relating to the on-going ASUU strike, at its recent meeting.

Credit: PUNCH.

Asuu Strike Update: Strike Continues As Asuu Distribute Food, Money To Members

Striking lecturers at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on Wednesday received relief materials, including food and money to enable them to cushion the effect of the ongoing industrial action.

The Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities of the institution, Dr. Mohammed Kabir-Aliyu, who confirmed this to one of our correspondents, said the offer would help the beneficiaries to survive the hardship occasioned by the non-payment of their salaries.

According to him, lecturers in the university have not earned their salaries in the last four months.

Among items distributed to the lecturers were rice, semovita, vegetable oil and cash ranging from N20, 000 to N50, 000.

Kabir-Aliyu said they were ready to call the Federal Government’s bluff concerning the sack threat.

University teachers nationwide embarked on strike on July 1 to force the Federal Government to honour an agreement it had with them since 2009.

The Supervisory Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, had last Thursday threatened the striking lecturers to return to work on or before December 4 or face dismissal.

However, the resumption deadline was on Tuesday extended to December 9 to enable the striking teachers to honour Prof. Festus Iyayi, who died on his way to attend ASUU NEC meeting in Kano.

 As of Wednesday, there were no signs that the striking lecturers would comply with the government directives to return to the classroom on Monday. Also, the university authorities had yet to issue a circular directing students to return for lectures.

Meanwhile, the National Parent-Teacher-Association of Nigeria has asked the striking teachers to see the extension of the resumption deadline as a sign of goodwill from the Federal Government.

In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday, the NAPTAN North Central Coordinator, Alhaji Danladi Aliyu, said the extension showed that the government was committed to ending the strike.

Aliyu said, “I am pleading with both parties not to see this issue as a war that must be won or lost as both are working in the interest of moving the nation forward.

“ASUU should use this deadline extension to resume duties, while we also urge the Federal Government not to come down hard on them.”

In a related development, Nnamdi Azikiwe University branch of ASUU has ordered its members that signed the attendance register to delete their names from the book.

Also, the management of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife has directed its students to resume on Sunday.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of OAU, Mr. Biodun Olarewaju on Wednesday said, “The authorities of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, have announced Sunday, December 8, as the resumption date  for the 2012/ 2013 rain semester.

“Accordingly, students of the university are expected to come into residence on the above date as lectures will commence immediately.”

Asuu Strike Update: N200 Billion Deposited In CBN Education Fund Account - FG

Federal Government says it has deposited the N200bn promised as funding to universities in an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe and the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, confirmed this on Tuesday.

The amount is for renewal of infrastructure in the nation’s public universities.

Okupe, who featured on Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily,’ said from the government’s perspective, everything that needed to be done had been done.

According to him, many of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have been agreed upon at the 13-hour meeting the union had with President Goodluck Jonathan which ended in the early hours of October 4.

“At the end of that meeting, the government proposed that everything that has been agreed should be put in a Memorandum of Understanding and that the two parties should sign. But the leadership of ASUU declined and said instead of that, they would rather have a letter expressing everything that has been resolved therein, and that will suffice for them.”

Okupe stressed that the attitude of the ASUU leadership showed that the seed of discord and evidence of bad faith already existed.

“It is unfortunate that somebody died but notwithstanding, that cannot be a justification for delaying the implementation of an agreement for 21 or more days.

At a briefing in Abuja, Okojie, who also said the money had been deposited in CBN, noted that the Coordinating Minister of Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had confirmed to him that the money had been deposited in the CBN.

ASUU had requested evidence that the money had been released as a condition to suspend the strike.

Okojie, who claimed that ASUU did not seek clarification from the commission, however said, such money could not be distributed directly to universities.

“You don’t disburse such funds to institutions; it is not earned allowance. The minister of finance said since they opened the account, the money had been deposited there. If there was any doubt, NUC is here they (ASUU) could have asked the question,” he said.

The NUC boss also revealed that government had directed vice-chancellors of federal universities to extend the resumption deadline for lecturers to December 9 to allow ASUU members to attend the burial ceremony of Prof. Festus Iyayi.

Iyayi, a former ASUU president died in a motor accident on November 12 while going to Kano for the union’s National Executive Council meeting.

The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, at a briefing in Abuja on Thursday, had warned that any lecturer that failed to resume on or before Wednesday (today) would be sacked.

But Okojie claimed that government was not aware of the burial arrangement when the deadline was issued.

“Council has been directed to shift the deadline to December 9 to allow those who have travelled to come back. That letter was only received yesterday from the burial committee which I also forwarded to the Minister of Education”, he said.

Okojie promised that lecturers that resumed by December 9 would be paid their salary arrears.

“For those who resumed by December 9, their salary arrears will be paid. We can’t pay someone who is on strike salary. In a democracy, those who want to work should be allowed to work,” he added.

Okojie, who admitted that ASUU and the Federal Government discussed the issue of renegotiation, maintained that it was not supposed to be included in the Memorandum of Understanding as demanded by the union.

According to him, either of the parties could call for renegotiation at any time. Asked why the non victimisation clause was not included in the MoU as pointed out by ASUU, Okojie said the issue was not discussed at the meeting with the President, so could not have formed part of the resolution.

He wondered why the union turned around to raise the issue when it “never arose” at their meeting.

The NUC boss claimed that ASUU went away after the meeting with the President with the mind that strike would be called off on Friday only “to come back to say you (government) didn’t include it.”

“We are saying that if there was an issue, it would have been resolved. To come back after three weeks means we are going back. The issue of non-victimisation clause never arose,” he insisted.

He, however, promised that the government would not victimise anybody for his role in the strike.

“Government is not going to victimise anybody. Because of the mood that day, nobody thought about it. The President shook hands with everybody on that day. The letter was written that night, they also vetted it.

“Government will not victimise anybody. If any government is going to do that it is not Jonathan’s government”, he assured.

But ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, who said the decision had not been communicated to the union, expressed doubt about the sincerity of government.

He wondered why government instead of responding to the letter of the union went public that it had deposited the N200bn in the CBN.

He said, “What they are doing is that they will tell you something when in actual fact they have not done anything. There were previous times when they will call the public on a matter only for us to find out that it has not been done.

If they have done it, what is wrong in them answering our letter? Why are they going to the public when we that they are supposed to respond to we don’t know.”

Credit: PUNCH NG

Asuu Strike Latest: We Have No Business With Minister - Asuu

The Chairman of ASUU at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Dr Ifeanyichukwu Abada, on Thursday said that the lecturers were not bothered by the federal government’s one week ultimatum to return to class which it issued yesterday.
Speaking with journalist yesterday in Nsukka, Abada said the union has no business with the minister who issued the order but with President Jonathan, adding that the order cannot work.

“It is unfortunate that the minister thinks that he can use his office to threaten lecturers. The December 4 ultimatum to lecturers to resume work or risk being sacked cannot work,’’ Abada said.

According to Abada, the minister was issuing a ‘military order’ rather than seek ways of settling things amicably with the lecturers.

Also reacting to the ultimatum, the immediate past chairman of the branch, Prof. Aloysius Okolie, described the ultimatum as unfortunate and an act of over-zealousness.

“Let the minister go ahead and sack all the lecturers in the country if he has such powers.

“The minister wants to start a fight he cannot finish,” said Okolie, who is also a senior lecturer in the department of political science.

He said it was against labour laws for the government to use the instrument of starvation on striking workers by invoking no-work, no-pay policy

Asuu Strike Update: FG Order Will Worsen Strike Action - Asuu

Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities [ASUU], Calabar Zone, has reacted angrily to the order to return to the classrooms issued to them by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, saying that the action would worsen the strike action rather than solving the problem.
ASUU accused the minister of deceiving  President Jonathan on the crisis, alleging that Wike and some other unnamed officials of the Government did not want the lingering problem between the union and the Federal Government to be resolved.
According to the zonal coordinator of ASUU Calabar zone, Dr. Charles Ononuju, with such threat the crisis would linger far longer than expected.
In a statement in Umuahia,. Ononuju said that the union received with shock the pronouncement by the supervising minister, saying the crisis could not be resolved that way.
“We received with shock the pronouncement of by the Supervising Minister of Education, Wike, that lecturers should resume work or be sacked”, Ononuju said.
He said that the union had gone far with discussion on how to resolve the crisis and was waiting for President Goodluck Jonathan’s reply to their letter after their meeting when the minister came up with the “unfortunate” pronouncement.
“Sacking lecturers will not solve the problem but will compound it. Wike should resign and come to the university and teach. This is not the way to go if they go this way, the crisis will not be resolved in the next 100 years”, he warned.

Asuu Strike Update: Strike Will be Suspended Withing 24 Hours If...

BREAKING: ASUU May Suspend Strike Once Resolutions Reached With Jonathan Accepted
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday said the ongoing strike by university lecturers would be suspended within 24 hours once the new resolutions reached with President Goodluck Jonathan on November 4 were accepted.

The union, however, described the statement credited to the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, that ASUU was making new outrageous demands as “untrue and absolute lie.”

The union said it asked President 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.

ASUU said a representative of the body including the President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulwahid Omar, would stand as witnesses.

The union said it 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.

ASUU’s position was conveyed by the union National Treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu, while speaking with The Nation in an interview in Ibadan on Wednesday.

He said the union appreciated the intervention of President Jonathan but noticed that some of the resolutions reached with the President were not included in the letter sent to the union.

According to him, the supervising Minister of Education was economical with the truth by not telling Nigerians that apart from the N30 billion earned allowances released for university staff, the government was yet to release the N100 billion claimed to have been released.

Asuu Strike Latest: Pro Chancellors Orders Lecturers Back To Work

e Committee of Pro-chancellors of Nigerian Federal Universities, on Tuesday, unanimously ordered immediate re-opening of universities across the country.

The communiqué signed by the Chairman of the Committee, Professor Kimse Okoko, was made available to newsmen late Tuesday in Abuja.

The communiqué was issued at the end of the committee meeting to discuss the protracted strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other issues affecting the Nigerian university system.

The communiqué stated that the decision to re-open the universities was unanimously agreed by all pro-chancellors in the overall interest of all concerned.

The pro-chancellors, in the communique, directed all vice chancellors to comply with the committee decision.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the decision of the pro-chancellors was predicated on the earlier referendum held by various chapters of ASUU that voted 60-40 in favour of suspension of the over four months old strike.

They expressed dismay that all efforts to resolve the crisis, including the intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan, has failed.

The communiqué recognised “all effort by Federal Government to address the major issues involved in the strike action including the bold and the supportive intervention by Mr President.”

It also stated that the committee noted “with satisfaction the outcome of the referendum conducted in all branches of ASUU nationwide which voted 60-40 in favour of the suspension of the ongoing strike by ASUU.”

The pro-chancellors called for the understanding of ASUU and indeed all staff of the various universities in Nigeria.

This order is coming on the heels of polarisation that has already crept into the ASUU, following the meeting they had with President Goodluck Jonathan penultimate week.

Nigerians were amazed that the emergency National Executive Council meeting, held in Kaduna last weekend, came out with fresh conditions for suspension of strike after it was rumoured that a deal was struck with President Jonathan.

ASUU has been on strike since July 1 and the NEC meeting was to deliberate on the resolutions of various chapters of ASUU on whether the strike should be suspended or not based on the offers by the government.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the pro-chancellors were aggrieved that even when majority of the members of ASUU want the strike called off, few elements in the union have refused to yield to the popular desire of the members.

Meanwhile, the crisis rocking the University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of ASUU, over its continued participation in the ongoing strike action by the union’s national body, worsened on Tuesday as the two factions in the crisis openly traded insults.

The congress, called on Monday, saw a sharp division in the chapter with a faction favouring a pull-out from the strike action, giving a week ultimatum to open the institution.

The faction also promised undisclosed further actions if the ultimatum was not met, after it held a separate congress following the disruption of the earlier one.