FG To ASUU: Resume Work Or Be Sacked!

 

The five-month-old face-off between the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over non-implementation of the 2009 agreement assumed a dramatic dimension yesterday, as the government vowed to sack any lecturer who fails to return to class within seven days. The government has, therefore, directed all vice-chancellors of federal universities that are currently on strike to immediately re-open for academic and allied activities. The striking lecturers on their part, declared the directive by the Federal Government a joke, saying they will never
be intimidated into calling off the strike.

Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike who briefed journalists in Abuja yesterday on the strike said it was rather unfortunate that after a 13-hour meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on November 4, 2013, the union came up with new conditions before they could call off the strike. He said it was obvious that the new conditions put forward by ASUU were not in the interest of the nation. One of the conditions was that President Jonathan should facilitate endorsement of resolutions reached with him, which must be signed by a high ranking government official, preferably the Attorney-General of the Federation but not a permanent secretary. ASUU said their representative as well as the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Abdulwahid Omar, would stand as witnesses. The striking lecturers also wanted the N200 billion agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for public universities to be lodged with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed to the benefitting universities. They also want the government to pay their salary arrears before resuming academic activities.

Resume or get sacked— Wike Speaking with newsmen, yesterday, Wike said: “All Vice-chancellors of Federal Universities that are on strike should immediately reopen for academic and allied activities as directed by their Pro-Chancellors. Vice-Chancellors should ensure that staff who resume for work are provided with the enabling environment for academic and allied activities. “Any academic staff who fails to resume on or before December 4, 2013, automatically ceases to be staff of the institution and vice-chancellors are also directed to advertise vacancies (internal and external) in their institutions”. He also accused ASUU of sabotaging the effort of government in addressing the issues especially after having a 13-hour meeting with President Jonathan where all issues were resolved and firm commitments were made. He said ASUU first met with Vice- President Namadi Sambo but there was no positive response; so they met with President Jonathan on November 4. He said: “On November 4, 2013, in a 13 hour meeting, President Goodluck Jonathan met with the ASUU executive, the labour union leaders from Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Trade Union Congress, TUC, where all issues were resolved and firm commitments made to address the lingering issues. “It is noteworthy that Mr. President’s gesture was more than sufficient to guarantee the commitment of Government to address all issues as resolved at the meeting with Mr. President. “At the end of the meeting with Mr. President, the ASUU executive promised to meet with its National Executive Committee to present the resolutions reached and report back by Friday November 8, 2013. “As a responsible government we cannot allow continuous closure of our public universities for this length of time (five months), as this poses danger to the education system, the future of our youths and national development”. The minister therefore directed NUC to ensure all the Federal Government universities comply with the directives saying, “the National Universities Commission, NUC, is hereby directed to monitor the compliance of these directives by various institutions”. When asked whether the directive by the Federal Government to vice chancellors to reopen was not against labour laws, he said if there were any grievances they should seek redress in the law court. Threats will only worsen it—ASUU

However, ASUU, in its reaction said the threat by the Federal Government to sack university lecturers would only worsen the situation and “another long path to make the strike linger more than necessary.” With the threat, ASUU said it was evident now that the Federal Government was not ready to implement any resolutions it reached with the union. While the government is threatening to sack the lecturers, the union disclosed that Nigerian public universities needed 60,000 lecturers owing to failure of government to employ. The treasurer of the union, Dr. Ademola Aremu, who spoke on behalf of the union said the Federal Government would only succeed in wasting the time of Nigerians and youths in the country if it failed to perfect the resolutions. ASUU said it was trying to do all necessary things as regards the resolutions reached with the government because it had reneged on the promises it made with ASUP, resident doctors, and health workers. Describing the threat as an insult to the sense and sensibilities of Nigerians who were waiting on the Federal Government for positive reaction, the union said, “with the latest action, the Federal Government has shown that they are not committed to all they have been saying. We are saying that since we agreed at the meeting that the sum of N200 billion is for 2012 and 2013 revitalisation, the Federal Government should deposit same in the Central Bank of Nigeria. We are already in November and December is around the corner. If they don’t do that now, when do they want to do it?. We are saying the non-victimisation clause should be included as agreed while the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement should be included as agreed with the President. “It is a pity if the Federal Government is not willing to perfect the resolutions reached with union. This is why we find it difficult to hold our leaders by their words. How can someone be threatening to sack lecturers when universities are already short-staffed by almost 60,000. We are not in military era. The military tried it and failed. This one will fail again. They can re-open the schools.

ASUU did not shut down the universities. It was the school management that ordered the students to go back home.” FG ultimatum a joke— lecturers Some university lecturers said that the Federal Government directive on the reopening of federal universities, which also directed other members of staff to resume by Dec. 4 or be sacked, was a joke. They spoke in separate telephone interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos. In his reaction to the directive, Dr Oghenekaro Ogbinaka, Chairman, University of Lagos branch of ASUU, said that the development was strange and laughable. He said that this was so considering the fact that the union was yet to get back to the government, after their deliberations with President Goodluck Jonathan. “Our reaction is simple. Let us just wait for the seven days to come around. What government has just done shows that they were not committed in the offer they made with the union that had the Trade Union Congress President and the Minister of Labour in attendance. We are not going to fall to that blackmail. Now, which one is better, government acceding to our demands or issuing out threats? “Honestly, this whole thing ought to have been easily resolved, given the approach taken by President (Goodluck) Jonathan, but it is like we want to be taken for granted after all and it is unfair,” he said. Professor Oyelowo Oyewo, immediate past Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, simply described the development as “a glorified joke and laughable”. Oyewo noted that it was funny that one of the parties which had before now been holding dialogue, would try to intimidate the other . “I see this whole thing as a joke and I dare say it is not even worth my comments. We just keep our fingers crossed and watch. I still emphasise that such ultimatum is a display of insensitivity and a huge joke.” Also commenting on the government directive, Professor Sat Obiyan, Head of Department of Political Science, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said that the ultimatum was not the best approach to resolving the issue. He, however, said that the threat might achieve some success because some lecturers would resume for fear of losing their jobs, but it would not end the crisis in the education sector. Obiyan said however, that it was unfortunate that the strike was allowed to linger for so long. “Nigerians are worried over the situation; the prolonged strike is not good for the education system in the country, but the Federal Government’s approach now is not the best.

ASUU is used to threats “What is required is little understanding by both parties to agree on something and end the strike without aggravating it. It is not a new thing for the Federal Government to threaten ASUU members with sack; it was done in 1996 by the late Sani Abacha. “For the university system to work perfectly, you need all the personnel and not few lecturers on ground to teach,“ he said. Obiyan urged the Federal Government to have a rethink and implement the agreement reached with the union. He also urged ASUU to give the Presidency the benefit of doubt that the agreement would be implemented, given the President’s intervention which saw him leading the government delegation at the last negotiation. Also, Dr Yinka Ajala, Head, Department of Geography, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said that the threat would ignite more problems in the education system. Ajala said that threatening lecturers with sack should not be a weapon for the Federal Government. He said that the ASUU executive was being careful with the agreement reached with the Federal Government before suspending the strike. “What ASUU is asking for is not too much, they want government to show some commitment with the agreement. Government can only force few lecturers to resume but not all, even if the vice-chancellors open registers in the institutions. “The sack threat is a tactic that will not work; it has been used by the military in the past, so it is not new to us. I do not think this is the way government should handle the strike, it will not solve the problem,“ he said. The Coordinator of Education Right Campaign (ERC), Mr Hassan Soweto, said that the ultimatum would only worsen the problem, noting that it was against the principle of public bargaining. What ASUU wants is some level of commitment from the Federal Government before it will suspend the strike. It is not right for the government to use force in a democracy,“ he said. Meanwhile, Mr Agbomeji Ibrahim, a student of Lagos State University, Ojo, urged the Federal Government not to be authoritative by giving lecturers one week to return to classes or face sack. Ibrahim, who is a student unionist, said that there was a better approach to resolving the issue, rather than using a sack threat. “Both the Government and ASUU need to accommodate each other on the negotiation table because both parties cannot get all their demands and must be ready to shift grounds”, Ibrahim said. ASUU’s Secretary, University of Abuja chapter, Abubakar Suleiman in his reaction said the conditions given by the union before the strike would be suspended were still real and insisted that the union would not compromise its stand on account of intimidation by government. According to Suleiman, “the strike is still on and we are not going to call it off on account of intimidation. We are not raising any fresh demands, we only gave government conditions to ensure that our members who participated in the strike are not victimised. Ekiti students embark on prayer sessions Meanwhile, students from Ekiti State, in tertiary institutions nationwide, embarked on marathon prayers and sought divine intervention to put an end to the strike action. The students had converged on Lady Jibowu Hall, Ekiti Government House where they held the prayer session, yesterday. The session had in attendance, the state’s Deputy Governor, Professor Modupe Adelabu and some clerics. Mrs Adelabu in her remarks cautioned the students against taking to the streets and engaging in illegal acts that could lead to violence and disruption of peace in the state. The Deputy Governor noted that the students did the right thing by taking their petition before God. She said it was unfortunate that both parties to the dispute – ASUU and the Federal Government – remained adamant despite interventions from well-meaning Nigerians. She then urged the students not to relent in their regular prayer for divine intervention, saying that the death of Prof Festus Iyayi, a frontline ASUU member in an auto-crash along the Abuja-Lokoja Road introduced another twist to the lingering dispute. Mrs Adelabu, who expressed the hope that the prayers of the students would yield the desired result in a matter of days, counselled the undergraduates against engaging in activities that could jeopardize their future.

Source: Vanguard News

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FG Revels Paying ASUU N200b To End Strike

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe has confirmed that the N200 billion demanded by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been paid. The money was paid into an account with the CBN and is meant for renewal of infrastructure facilities in public universities in the country, Okupe explained. The move which was announced earlier today was just in time before the expiration of the December 4 ultimatum given by the Federal Government to members ASUU who were told to resume classes or be sacked. Okupe paid the payments public on the Channels Television programme ‘Sunrise Daily’ adding that everything that needed to be done has been done and whether the strike would be called off or not now lies in the hands of the leadership of ASUU. News reports: He said that most of the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, ASUU, have been agreed upon at the 13-hour meeting they had with the President in October. “At the end of that meeting, the Government proposed that everything that has been agreed should be put in a memorandum of agreement and that the two parties should sign, but the leadership of ASUU declined and said instead of that, they would rather have a letter of comfort expressing everything that has been resolved therein, and that will suffice for them.” According to him, the Government agreed to their request and issued the said letter based on the agreement that the strike would be called off within 7 days. However, this did not happen “in spite of the fact that the ASUU leadership presented the letter of comfort to its chapters nationwide and a clear majority of them endorsed the resolutions reached and actually were more inclined towards calling off the strike.” Dr. 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. Reading from the ‘Letter of Comfort’ issued by the Federal Government in agreement with the leadership of ASUU, the government agreed that Nigerian universities must be revitalized for effective service delivery, all the provisions in the agreement and MoU for the revitalization shall be fully implemented as captured in the 2012 Needs Assessment and the Federal Government shall mobilize resource towards this goal. “Based on this, it was also agreed that a sum of N1.3 trillion shall be made available to ASUU over the next six years starting from December 2013 with (the sum of) N200 billion. The FGN therefore request that the ASUU shall within 7 days call off its 4 month strike.” Contrary to the Federal Government’s expectation that ASUU would call off the strike, ASUU in another document said that they “could not call off the strike because of certain uncertainties or gaps that are evident in the government’s report.” Okupe asked fiercely, “what are these uncertainties? He accused ASUU of turning around to again state four new conditions for the strike to be called off. They demanded that the agreed N200 billion should be deposited in an account at the Central Bank within 2 weeks, while the negotiation of the 2009 agreement should be included in the final document. The ASUU, according to Okupe also demanded that a non-victimization clause should be included as well as a new MoU signed by the Attorney-General. Dismissing their requests, he said a demand for a memorandum is a waste of people’s time because this is ideally what should follow any agreement made between two parties in the first place, and that by International Labour Laws which Nigeria is guided by, no one is expected to be victimized for going on strike. He also said that ASUU, asking that the MoU with Federal Government should be signed by the Attorney-General “does not make sense” because anyone of high standing in government can sign for it. He added that an account has already been opened for the N200 billion they are requesting for in the Central Bank. Okupe added that the government has shown commitment by meeting with the leadership of ASUU, and agreeing to its demands, considering that previous governments did not give them such an opportunity to sit down and discuss. He called on ASUU to do the right thing for the benefit of the nation. “The Government cannot be seen to be contesting with any sector of the economy or the country. This President is interested in moving Nigeria forward through a very well-articulated transformation agenda.” Source: clickvibes.com Share this information with friends.

“FG Can’t Meet ASUU’s N92b Demand’ – Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

Minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala said yesterday during the opening of the two-day meeting of Commissioners of Finance and Accountants-General of States, that the federal government can’t meet the N92billion being demanded by ASUU.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said
“At present, ASUU wants the Federal Government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances, when the resources are not there, and when we are working to integrate
past increases in pensions. We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to the stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work. Since I assumed office, the share of recurrent expenditure in our total budgets had increased astronomically.
In fact, recurrent expenditure accounted for about 77.2 per cent of the federal budget and we are now working to re-balance this ratio.
The country is still suffering from the effect of the 2010 increase in salary. Do we want to get to a stage in this country that all the money we earn is used to pay salaries and allowances? If the demands of the university lecturers are met and we continue to pay them salaries and allowances, we will not be able to provide infrastructure in the universities.
 Culled from : nigerianeagle
For me, i think the woman is right. ASUU should go back to work and stop this their demanding issh! Girls go and marry o, and guys go learn trade cos as the thing be, hope no dey o!

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FG Says "No Work, No Pay" To ASUU

The Federal Government has resolved to stop the salaries of protesting universities lecturers over the ongoing strike of the its Academic body, ASUU.

The decision to invoke the “no work, no pay” rule was said to have been officially taken yesterday, even though some
universities had earlier complained of no salaries since August.

It was gathered that the government has passed a directive to the various universities governing councils to stop payment of salaries of the striking lecturers forthwith.

The ASUU Zonal Chairman in Abuja, Mr Clement Chup confirmed the development yesterday after a zonal conference of ASUU, University of Abuja chapter, which
took place at the Gwagwalada campus to review the nationwide strike.

He said his colleagues were yet to receive their September salaries.

According to him, “we have resorted to other welfare strategies to cope with the effect of the strike, particularly to contain the various attempts by government to break the resolve
of the union.

“Part of the welfare strategy, involved distributing food items, giving out soft loans and cash advances to members.”

He urged members of the public to ignore the rumour that the strike has been called off.

He said: “Nigerians should disregard rumours making the rounds that the three months old
strike has been called off”, adding that “the strike continues until the government demonstrates a positive inclination towards
implementing the 2009 agreements and the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties.”

(Myschoolcomm)


Good for them i must say. Asuu go back to work and stop frustrating our young leaders.

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Electricity Workers Threaten Nationwide Blackout If ASUU Strike Doesn’t End In 7 Days

 
Labour activist and General Secretary, National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Joe Ajaero has given the Federal Government one week to resolve its differences with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) or cripple the country with
the mother-of-all-strikes.
Ajaero who was speaking during the opening of a training workshop organized for labour leaders in Enugu, threatened to ally with other unions across the country to join ASUU on a solidarity stike if the impasse persists.
Ajaero said government was being insensitive to the plight of Nigerian students because the children of the rich are studying outside the country.
He said:
“If ASUU issue is not addressed, we will shut this country alongside other unions. We will ally with other unions and make sure that nothing works in this country.
This is not a strike based on demand, it’s based on agreement. As government, you must honour your agreement. Here, there’s no social security, the price of food is high, the same goes for electricity tariff. We are going to join our children to stay at home and let them run the system,” he threatened.
Source: gistreel

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Students Plead With Jonathan To End ASUU Strike

Students of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki, on Thursday appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene and stop the ongoing strike by university lecturers. The students said that the ongoing strike in its 4th day was not in the interest of university education and commended lecturers in EBSU for not participating in the strike. The students, who spoke include Miss Rebecca Okoro, a 200 level student of the Department of Biotechnology as well as Enyinnaya Oko and Stephen Onwe both first year students of the Department of Mass Communication. They said timely intervention by Jonathan would salvage the situation and appealed to him to act fast to save the university system from collapse. The students expressed regret that their colleagues affected by the strike had remained at home. “We commend the wisdom
and decision of the local ASUU chapter for not participating in the ongoing industrial action. “You know we just resumed on May 12 for academic activities after six weeks closure of the institution by the authorities in the wake of violent protests by students over fee hike. “Joining the strike now will have serious consequences on the students of the university. “We, however, feel for our colleagues in these affected universities who are now wasting in their respective homes,’’ Okoro said. The students said that their first semester examination had just started before the commencement of the ASUU strike. They said that the industrial action embarked upon by the ASUU could distort the smooth running of the academic calendar if nothing was done to end it soon. The students decried the alleged lack of commitment by the government to the fulfilment of agreements with labour unions. According to Okoro, the indefinite strike is a setback to the higher education sector. She called for concerted efforts to end the strike. “We understand that this agreement was reached between ASSU and Federal Government representatives since 2009 and one wonders why government has refused to implement the terms of the agreement,” she said. Onwe said: “We completely detest the posturing of government in the whole issue but we are appealing to Mr President to urgently intervene. “His timely intervention will no doubt facilitate quick resolution of the impasse in the interest of Nigerian students,’’ he said. Dr Isa Fagge, the National President of ASSU, had directed members of the union to embark on an indefinite strike over the non-implementation of some of the issues contained in their agreement with government in 2009. He alleged that the government had reneged on the Memorandum of Understanding it signed with the union in December 2011. (NAN) Source: www.vanguardngr.com Share with friends.

NLC Cautions FG Over ASUU Strike

AS the ongoing nationwide strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, enters the third day, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has warned of the impact of the strike on students and the educational sector in the country.
It called on government to not only end the strike immediately by implementing the agreements it entered into with ASUU, but also declare a state of emergency in education.
NLC said in a statement, yesterday, that while the strike was completely avoidable, but made inevitable by Federal government’s insensitivity and penchant for reneging on agreements, Congress found it completely unacceptable that government refused to implement agreements it willingly entered into.
The statement by NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, argued that the issues articulated by ASUU were not self-serving but tenable, valid and germane to the sustenance of a qualitatively viable education system.
According to the statement “in a nutshell, these issues include, the lingering crisis at the Rivers State University of Technology, RSUST; the continued violation of the rights of the re-engaged 49 academics at the University of Ilorin; the non-release of the White Paper on Special Visitation to the University of Abuja; the parlous state of the economy and government’s disregard for its agreements.”
Source: Vanguard Share with friends.

ASUU Demanding N3,000,000,000,000 ( N3tn ) From FG

The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Nasir Fagge, has accused the federal government of not telling Nigerians the truth about the demand of the union as regards the government’s statement that the union's demand has been met.
According to Fagge, ASUU had a Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with the federal government for it to spend over N3 trillion to turn around the fortune of all federal and state universities and also to better the lot of the educational sector in the country.

“The agreement is for the federal government to spend N800 billion
yearly for the next four years, but what we have is government talking about N130 billion which is very insignificant," he said.

Fagge made the revelation Tuesday, while fielding questions from journalists, at the end of the congress of the Benue State University chapter of ASUU, in Makurdi.

He said: "Our demands are genuine, and it is based on the mutual agreement entered into in 2009 by government and ASUU. We urge the government to be responsible to that agreement.

"President Goodluck Jonathan said the strike is being politicised but the truth is that it is government that is playing politics with our demands. It is as if every problem in this country is now being politicized.

"I want to ask one basic question: Is it political to ask government to be responsible enough to implement an agreement she willingly entered into.

"It is important to state clearly that we are a union of intellectuals, and we cannot accept a situation were the tail will wag the dog. Whatever we do is for the betterment of the Nigerian university system.”

In addition, the ASUU national president said: "It is important to place on record that the struggle is a continuous one but the implementation of the 2009 agreement is key to improving on facilities in our universities and placing it at par with what we have in other parts of the world."

If you ask me, i will say that  ASUU don't want to go back to work. How can they be demanding for this much??? na them sabi jor!!!!!

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