CONFUSION, DISAGREEMENT TRAIL ASUU NATIONAL BODY

The hope that the four month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, may be called off this week, following President Goodluck Jonathan's intervention last week, may
be dashed as the 61 chapters of the union are divided over the move to call off the...
strike. Congresses of the 61 chapters of the union were
therefore held, yesterday, while the National
Executive Council, NEC, meeting will hold tomorrow
in one of the northern universities.
The outcome of the union's congresses indicated
that there was disagreement on the need to call off
the strike.
Vanguard gathered that while some ASUU chapters
were ready to suspend the strike in the light of the
President's intervention, others insisted that they
will continue the strike due to what they described
as their distrust for the government.
It was learnt that while the University of Lagos,
UNILAG, resolved to suspend the strike, chapters
like the University of Ibadan, UI; University of
Benin, UNIBEN; University of Calabar, UNICAL;
University of Jos, UNIJOS and the Lagos State
University, LASU, said the strike must continue,
arguing that the Federal Government could not be
trusted to fulfil its promise of injecting over N1.1
trillion to universities in the next five years.
Members UNIJOS chapter, yesterday, voted
overwhelmingly for the strike to continue.
After receiving briefings on what transpired at last
week's meeting of the union's representativeswith
President Goodluck Jonathan and after going
through copies of the resolution of the meeting,
194 members voted for the strike to continue while
80 voted for a suspension.
Sources told Vanguard that after hours of debate
by those for and against the continuation of the
strike, it was obvious that majority felt that the
meeting with the president did not achieve much.
Those who spoke in favour of the strike to continue
wondered why the strike should be called off on
the basis of pleas and verbal promises by the
president, when the government is allegedly
reputed for not to honoring agreements.
They were said to have argued that the suffering
by students and members in the last four months
would be a waste if something concrete did not
come out of the strike to improve the situation in
universities.
A member, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
expressed fears that the referenda in other
branches might follow the same trend "if the
briefing we got here is what they got."
A source at University of Lagos, UNILAG, chapter,
told Vanguard that the debate at its congress was
on whether to end or suspend the strike.
He said: "We eventually moved to suspend the
strike and end it only when the President pumps in
the first N220 billion into the universities in
January 2014.
"Although this is not totally in line with the 2009
agreement, we feel that we can suspend the strike
out of respect for the President. We just want to
give him the benefit of doubt, and hope that he
fulfills his promise."
At Lagos State University, LASU, one of the
executive members of ASUU, who spoke to
Vanguard on condition of anonymity, affirmed that
though the chapter was not averse to the proposal
of President Jonathan, but the consensus at its
congress was that ASUU should not just be a
monitoring body when the fund is finally injected.
He said: "After our congress, which lasted several
hours, it was the resolve of our chapter that the
strike should not be called off, because we are
uncomfortable with the fact that the Federal
Government has said that ASUU will just be a
monitoring officer, while the Minister of Education
will be the implementation officer.
"We argued that we must be part and parcel of
how the funds are managed and what they have
earmarked for within the period of five years.
"How can we know if the Ministry of Education and
other authorities are prudently spending the funds
for the proposed projects if ASUU is not part of the
management committee? So, our position is that
the strike should not be called off."
At the University of Ibadan, Vanguard gathered that
members asked their leadership to commit the
President to signing the resolution of FG/ASUU
meeting held last week and include non-
victimisation clause.
The Chairman, ASUU, University of Ibadan, Dr.
Segun Ajiboye, said that the union had set up
project monitoring committee to ensure that funds
released by government was not misappropriated.
Ajiboye maintained that it was not how quick the
strike ends but how well it ends, adding that the
goal of the strike must be actualised.
According to him, it was regrettable that it took the
Federal Government four months to think
education was an important sector, adding that no
country in the world plays with education the way
Nigerian leaders do.
Also, former Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam
David-West said, yesterday, that ASUU would
continue to go on strike as long as injustice
remained in the system.
He said this at the UI-ASUU congress, where he
vowed to always support all the struggles that
would lead to the rejuvenation of the education
sector.
Source: Vanguard News
Credit: Nnamdi Azikiwe University FB page