FG begs parents, students over ASUU strike
Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufa’i
| credits: File copy
| credits: File copy
The
Federal Government on Wednesday appealed to parents and students of the
nation’s universities to bear with it in what it described as the
unfortunate consequences of the closure of universities, while it worked
hard to end the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by members of
the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran
Maku, made the appeal while speaking with State House correspondents at
the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Wednesday.
Maku said the government had resolved to
end the crisis because of the damages perennial strikes had inflicted
on the nation’s education sector.
He said the perennial disruption of academic calendar as a result of strikes had become a source of worry to the government.
The minister, however, expressed the
confidence that the negotiation being currently spearheaded by the
Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka Wogu, and the Minister of Education,
Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa’i, would soon produce the desired result.
He said, “The Federal Government has
been far more worried than you think concerning the strike in tertiary
institutions, because of the disruption of the school calendar. So, the
government is concerned and very worried, and since the outset of the
strike, the government has been negotiating with ASUU through the
Ministry of Labour and Productivity and the Ministry of Education.
“So, we are appealing to our people,
particularly parents and children of this nation to bear with us; to
show more understanding and we pray that this type of strike will not
recur, because the public school system suffers a lot of damage with the
perennial strikes.”
Meanwhile, ASUU said on Wednesday in
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, that the Federal Government was financially
buoyant to fund the implementation of the 2009 agreement with the union.
ASUU alleged that the government had,
during this year alone, been selling crude at about 150 per cent of
budget price and has since January this year collected about N500bn in
excess of projected revenue from tax alone.
ASUU Co-ordinator in the South West, Dr.
Adesola Nasir, stated this during a news conference in Ago-Iwoye on the
five-week old strike by university lecturers.
Nasir, who is also the Chairman of
Olabisi Onabanjo University branch of ASUU, stressed that the Federal
Government had the financial means to honour the agreement.
He described the lingering crisis in the
Nigerian university system as a reflection of the insensitivity of the
Federal Government to the plight of Nigerians.
The union therefore said it was
embarrassing to discover that the government had denied the existence of
any agreement with the university lecturers.
It further stated that it was
unfortunate that the progress made so far in resolving the lingering
crisis over the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement, failed to
match the required urgency required to arrest the decline in the
country’s citadel of learning.
He said, “Our union had thought the
government would save itself the embarrassment of being exposed as most
insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
“At the first meeting called by
government representatives to address the aforementioned issue, our
representatives got the shocker of all time when the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation expressed the denial of the existence of
the Memorandum of Understanding on the annual release of N400bn for
three years as intervention fund for public universities in the
country.”
From the Ibadan Zone of ASUU, five
universities on Wednesday insisted that the ongoing strike by the union
would not be called off unless the Federal Government met their demands.
The universities are University of
Ibadan; University of Lagos; Federal University of Agriculture,
Abeokuta; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye; Lagos State
University and Tai Solarin University of Education.
The union, at a press briefing in LASU
on Wednesday, also faulted universities that conducted Post-Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examinations, despite the ongoing strike.
Some of the universities that have
written their Post-UTME are Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife;
University of Ilorin, University of Lagos, Lagos State University and
University of Nigeria, Nsuka, among others.
Zonal Coordinator, Ibadan Zone of ASUU,
Dr. Adesola Nasir, explained that the union embarked on the strike to
protest against the decline in the universities in terms of teaching,
research, facilities, including students’ accommodation.
http://www.punchng.com/news/fg-begs-parents-students-over-asuu-strike/
CULLED FROM: PUNCH NEWSPAPERS
BY: August 1, 2013 by Segun Olatunji, Olalekan Adetayo and Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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