Varsity teachers met yesterday on the campuses to discuss President Goodluck Jonathan’s offer to end their more than four months strike.
According to the operating guidelines of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the local chapters are expected to vote on whether they agreed with the proposal and that the strike should end or whether they disapproved and the strike should continue.
Decisions reached on the various campuses are to be taken to tomorrow’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, which will take a decision after aggregating the opinions.
Opinions were divided yesterday, although many ASUU chapters failed to disclose their decisions
President Jonathan held a meeting with the leadership of ASUU last week, where he made some offers which ASUU was expected to take to their members for deliberation with the hope that it will pacify them into resuming academic activities this week
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 fulfill its promise of injecting over N1.1 trillion to universities in the next five years
Voting at UNIJOS
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 representatives with 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.
It was further gathered that those for the suspension of the strike spoke passionately on the need to consider the impact of the strike on students and the gesture from President Jonathan, who met personally with ASUU leaders and pleaded with them to suspend the strike.
A few of them were quoted as saying it was better to suspend the strike and find other ways of pursuing their demands so as not to lose the support of the people.
It was learnt that the Branch ASUU Chairman, Dr. David Jangkham, after announcing the result of the voting, said it would be taken to the national body which would collate the referendum on the issue from various chapters to come up with a position on whether the strike would be suspended or sustained.
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.”
UNILAG
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.”
LASU
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.”
LASU’s internal issues
The source added that LASU chapter of ASUU may embark on its local action, after the national strike is suspended or called off if the university’s Governing Council and the State Government fail to adequately address some of its local issues, which border on members’ welfare and a reduction in the institution’s tuition fees.
He said: “It is our resolve at the congress that if the state government and the university’s Governing Council, which is meeting on Wednesday, fail to address our local issues adequately, we shall embark on local actions.
“The university management has wasted four months without addressing our local issues, which border on the casualisation of our academic staff, the steep increment in tuition fees paid by students and the non-implementation of the Universities Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 2012, which allows academic staff on professorial cadre to retire at 70 years against the former 65 years.”
At UI
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.
David-West
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
The congress of the Union at the Federal University of Technology (FUT), Minna was divided, with majority of the members supporting the suspension of the action. Others would want it suspended with some conditions met by the government.
The minority demanded that in calling off the action, the leadership of the union should insist that no member is victimised for his roles in the strike. They also insisted that government should indicate in the final agreement that the 2009 agreement was due for negotiation and the payment of the balance of their academic earned allowances.
As soon as Dr. Fatai Jimoh briefed the congress of the outcome of the meeting between President Jonathan and the union, the house was divided, with the majority of the members pushing for suspension.
The few dissenting voices argued that the union should not fall prey to the government’s ploy. They cautioned that the union cannot take the government for its word, maintaining that if the union had to embark on a strike after series of correspondences and strike in 2011 that led to the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2012 were not honoured.
But majority of the university teachers said the plight of the students and their parents should be considered.
After an exhaustive debate, the congress directed its chairman to convey to the National Executive Council meeting holding tomorrow at the Bayero University in Kano that the union could consider suspending the action, but insisted that the three conditions be met.
Chapter chairman Dr. Fatai Jimoh, who initially refused to divulge the outcome of the congress, later said: “I have the mandate to take the decision of the congress to NEC. But, if you insist to know, majority of our members called for the suspension of the strike but with the government fulfilling three conditions.
“Don’t ask me the conditions, because we don’t want it yet in the public domain. All I can tell you is that the strike is still on, until the NEC of the union decides otherwise.”
The chapter chairman also refused to assess the impact of the action. He said: “As long as NEC has not suspended the action, it will be premature to assess the success or otherwise of the action. When the strike is called off, I’ll give my candid assessment.”
At Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, ASUU chair Comrade Yahaya Badeggi said: “The congress at IBBU Lapai resolved that the strike continues until when the National Executive Council of the union decides otherwise. We know they are still negotiating. We shall abide by the decision of NEC.”
On the gains of the action, Badeggi said: “I make bold to say that the action has produced some positive results. From the N100 billion released, our university got N450 million. This would not have been so but for the strike. I believe that at the end of the day, the university system will be better for it.”
The following are the decisions at the various ASUU chapters on the strike.
•University of Benin (UNIBEN). Members unanimously voted for the strike to continue because the Federal Government’s offer omitted some vital segments of the 2009 agreement;
•University of Calabar (UNICAL) lecturers voted for the suspension of the strike;
Nasarawa State University, Keffi. ASUU chair Dr. Theophilus Lagi, said: “I can assure you that all members present at the congress today wanted the strike to continue because the documents from the government failed to address the grey areas in contention. We believe there is nothing practicable in the government’s offer, even with the N200 billion it promised to release. Before we can suspend the strike, all unpaid salaries of our colleagues must be paid and there must be solid assurance from the government that no member will be victimised after the strike is eventually suspended;
•Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). When the issue was put to vote, the majority of members wanted an end to the strike, with the agreement that the government must sign a binding document on how it will release the N1.2 trillion it promised to release. They promised to abide by the decision of the NEC in Kano;
•Delta State University (DELSU) members want suspension of the strike.
•Ekiti State University (EKSU) lecturers would not disclose the outcome of the congress until after the NEC meeting tomorrow;
•Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso (LAUTECH). The ASUU local chairman said he would not disclose the outcome of the congress but a lecturer who attended the congress said members were okay with the offer of the government and wanted the strike to end;
Culled From Nation Newspaper And Vanguard Newspaper
No comments:
Post a Comment