ASUU President – FaggeIn furtherance to confirm ASUU stand on full
implementation of 2009 agreement reached with Federal Government, the
lecturers have categorically stated that they are not in under pressure
to suspend the lingering strike.
Report according to THIS DAY LIVE suggests that ASUU is not ready to
sheathe its sword unless the Federal Government fully implement the 2009
agreement it reached with the union.
READ THE REPORT ACCORDING TO THIS DAY LIVE:
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has refuted reports that
it is under pressure to suspend its strike, which is almost four months
old.
ASUU Chairman, University of Abuja chapter, Dr. Clement Chup, during a
telephone interview yesterday, reiterated the stance of the union on the
implementation of the 2009 agreement signed with the federal government
as a precondition for suspending the strike.
Chup also reacted to the plea by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu
Sa’ad Abubakar III, in his Sallah message, urging ASUU to call off the
strike, saying: “Did the sultan say there is no basis for the strike?
Did he say the strike is not genuine? Did he say government is right in
not implementing the agreement?”
“Government is not yet serious, when they are serious, we would know,” he added.
He said there were no formal meetings going on between the warring parties anymore.
Recent efforts by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria (CBON) to make ASUU to
shift grounds on its demands had failed to yield any result.
The bishops had written to the union pleading that it meets the government halfway in its demands.
ASUU National President, Dr. Nasir Fagge, admitted the receipt of the letter.
“We have responded to the letter and we noted that we have already met
the government halfway. In 2006, we did that and the agreement then was a
product of collective bargaining. In 2012, we also met the government
halfway, we shifted grounds,” Fagge had said.
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as a cheap
and ludicrous strategy the decision by the federal government to enlist
traders, religious leaders and even students to put pressure on ASUU to
call off its strike without resolving the issues that caused the dispute
in the first instance.
In a statement yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai
Mohammed, the party said the strike would have ended by now if the
federal government had pursued its negotiations with ASUU with half the
energy it had been using to rally various groups to protest against the
union.
The party described as particularly ridiculous the crowd-for-hire
protest in Abuja on Monday, by the so-called National Market Women
Association, in which their leader vowed to chase lecturers out of
Nigeria and replace them with "jobless Nigerians."
He said: "This infantile statement by the leader of the apparently
misguided market women is the most irresponsible statement that anyone
has made on the long-drawn ASUU strike, and it is a shame that the
government is the instigator of such nonsense."
While indeed there are millions of jobless Nigerians, is it just any
jobless Nigerian who can be a university teacher? How does President
Goodluck Jonathan, himself a former university teacher, feel about those
apparently hired by his administration treating university teachers
with so much disrespect? Even if the government succeeds in forcing the
lecturers back to the classroom, can it force them to teach
effectively?”
Why are these groups, including students who have sold their souls to
the devil, not mounting the same pressure on the federal government to
intensify its efforts to end the strike?”
Also yesterday, the Coalition of Civil Societies Organisation (CSOs)
stormed the headquarters of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to express
their displeasure with the prolonged strike by ASUU.
The protesters, carrying several placards with messages that expressed
their anger over the impasse, marched from the Plateau House around 10
a.m. to the Labour House.
Executive Director, Conscience Nigeria, lead organiser of the protest,
Mr. Tosin Adeyanju, called on the union to end the strike, which he said
“is no longer in our collective interest.”
In another intervention, the Human Rights Writers’ Association Of
Nigeria (HURIWA), has declared a hunger strike for Tuesday and Wednesday
to protest the delay in reopening the universities.
The group in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko,
directed all its members worldwide to voluntarily embark on the two-day
hunger strike if their individual health conditions permit.
0 comments:
Post a Comment