Senate Wades Into ASUU Strike, Calls Demands ‘Absolutely Unnecessary’

An end may be in sight for the four-month old
strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) as the Senate,
Wednesday, mandated its President, Senator
David Mark, to engage both the federal
government and ASUU with a view to ending the strike. The senators, who urged the striking lecturers
to return to the classroom to prevent what
they described as further devaluation of the
country’s educational fortunes, also mandated
the committee on education to liase with the
Federal Ministry of Education, National Universities Commission (NUC) and all other
relevant stakeholders to proffer a lasting
solution to the crisis. The Senate’s resolution, which followed a
motion sponsored by 107 senators and
presented by Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-
Egba, recalled that ASUU had been on strike
since July 1 in protest of federal government’s
alleged failure to implement the 2009 agreement signed with lecturers for proper
funding of the nation’s universities. According to him, the Senate noted with
concern that the strike had paralysed
academic activities in the universities and
consequently rendered the institutions
redundant, stressing that several negotiations
between the striking lecturers and the federal government along with the intervention of
some prominent Nigerians have failed to
produce the desired results. Ndoma-Egba also revealed that despite the
release of N100 billion for infrastructural
development to the universities as well as
additional N30 billion as accumulated
allowances by the federal government, the
lecturers have refused to be pacified, regretting that a situation where ASUU is on
strike, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics
(ASUP) is also on strike and the College of
Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) also
recently embarking on seven days of warning
strike is worrisome. Presenting the details of ASUU’s demands as
contained in the 2009 agreement with the
federal government by the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Education, Senator Uche
Chukwumerije shocked his colleagues, with
some of the demands of the union perceived as unnecessary. Such demands include maternity leave
allowance, sick leave allowance, injury
allowance, car allowance, postgraduate (PG)
grants for the supervision of PG students,
external excess workload allowance,
sabbatical leave allowance, teaching practice and industrial training allowance as well as
funding of the state and federal universities. The total sum of the demands by ASUU in
figure, according to Chukwumerije, amounted
to N1,05 trillion, adding that it was agreed
that N5 billion would be released in 2009,
another N5 billion in 2010, among others. Speaking on the strike, Mark implored ASUU to
return to the classroom on behalf of the
Senate, saying he thought details of the
agreement when being read by Chukwumerije
were mere proposals in view of the degree of
triviality involved. According to him, the nature of the agreement
showed that those who represented the
federal government at the negotiation table
where it was signed, were people who did not
know their right from their left. He described
the action as unfair to the nation.

Withholding Our Salaries Will Not Make Us End The Strike, ASUU Tells FG

University lecturers yesterday reiterated
their commitment to the ongoing strike by
the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, saying not even the attempt by the
Federal Government to withhold their
salaries would stop them from continuing with the strike action. Chairman, Academic Staff Union of
Universities, University of Abuja chapter,
Dr. Clement Chup, stated in an interview
that the Federal Government, threatening
to withhold their salaries, would not make
them abandon their cause. “Yes, the non-payment of our August salary
is another attempt by the government to
stampede us into breaking the strike, and
as usual, it will not work. “Our next line of action is to continue with
the strike. We had, on July 2, commenced a
total, comprehensive and indefinite strike
action, and as long as the government does
not meet our demand of implementing the
FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement, the strike will continue,” Chup said. He also described a section of the National
Association of Nigerian Students distancing
themselves from the strike as “politically
motivated students.”

Civil Right Groups Storm Abeokuta In ASUU Strike Protest

Civil right groups under the aegis of Joint
Action Front (JAF) today took to the streets
of Abeokuta in protest against the continued
face-off between the Federal Government
and the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU. Protesters gathered as early as 7 a.m., at the
NNPC Mega Station junction along IBB
Boulevard from where they marched to
Kuto and linked Kemta area where the
leader of the group, Dr. Dipo Fashina,
addressed them. They later marched from Sapon to Ibara area. The protest tagged: ‘Protest to Save Public
Education,’ witnessed the display of various
placards with inscriptions like ‘Save our
future, don’t gamble with our lives,’
‘Education is our right,’ ‘Jonathan, you are
sleeping over this matter too much,’ ‘Our leaders are our problem,’ ‘Okonjo-Iweala, a
liar; FG is not broke,’ among others. Chairperson of JAF, Dr. Dipo Fashina, while
addressing the protesters said: “To save
public education is to insist that
governments in Nigeria fund education in
line with the 26 percent of national budget
as recommended by the United Nations and make education tuition free at all levels.
Funding of education adequately means the
repair and building of new infrastructure in
primary, secondary and tertiary institutions
and the provision of up-to-date facilities. “The Federal Government operates anti-
poor policies and this is clearly expressed in
their lack of disposition to public education.
Funding of public education is not given the
proper priority it deserves, because the
children of those in government and their friends are being trained in private schools in
Nigeria and foreign countries with the
looted public funds. Nigerians must know
that the politicians, top civil servants, some
traditional rulers and their cronies of
contractors and patrons were beneficiaries of public education. “Some of them set up private schools and
universities in Nigeria and abroad with stolen
funds from public coffers. “That is why none of their children are in
any public schools in Nigeria. That also
explains why they are not bothered when
public schools are shut and pupils and
students have to remain at home for as long
as the unions are frustrated to resume without government acceeding to their
legitimate demands,” he stated. Fashina said government should be blamed
for all the crises in the education sector,
including the incessant strikes, adding that
the unions in the education sector were not
making fresh demands. “They are on strike because governments,
both at the Federal and State levels, have
failed to implement agreements they freely
entered into and signed with the unions. For
example, the Nigeria Union of Teachers
(NUT) has been on a number of strikes since 2009 because government failed to
implement the Teacher Special Scale (TSS)
that was a product of an agreement with
government in 1992. “The polytechnics were shut for almost
three months because of the failure by
government to implement the 2009
agreement on the creation of a National
Polytechnic Commission that will regulate
education standards in the polytechnics, non-commencement of the renegotiation of
the FGN/ASUP agreement, as contained in
the signed 2009 agreement and failure by
the Federal Government to release the
White Paper on the visitations to the
polytechnics. “Colleges of Education started their warning
strike on 9 September because of
government’s refusal to implement the
2010 agreement, to carry out NEEDS
Assessment of Colleges of Education, and to
commence re-negotiation of the agreement. Equally, ASUU has been on strike since 1
July because government failed to honour
agreement signed in 2009. “The 2009 agreement with ASUU was on
funding facilities and infrastructure in the
universities to ensure the revitalisation of
the facilities and academic programmes. “Implementation of the NEEDS Assessment
Report as agreed in the MOU of 24 January,
2012 between the Federal Government and
ASUU on the standardisation and effective
running of the universities; and failure to pay
legitimately earned allowances of the academic and non-academic staff,” Fashina
added.

Lagos Gives 340 Students Scholarship

No fewer than 340 indigenous students of
Lagos State, studying in tertiary institutions
across the state will on 5 October be awarded
scholarships worth N20 million, by the Youth
of All Nations (YOANEA) in partnership with the
state Government. The scholarships, according to Jeff Echezona
Joshua, are aimed at encouraging people to
go to school as well as alleviating the
sufferings some indigent students go
through. He explained that education remains one of
the vital tools for society’s development and
called on stakeholders to always mobilise
their wards to acquire valuable knowledge,
regardless of the challenges involved. “After much analysis, we also discovered that
some political wards do not have enough
representation in terms of students pursuing
higher education across the country. We
challenge every stakeholder in the affected
areas to mobilize their people to check the non-enrolment problem,” he added. On the day the scholarships will be awarded,
the overall best student at the state level will
get N1.5 million and a laptop, 2nd over all
best will get N1 million and a laptop
computer, while the 3rd overall best student
will get a laptop computer with N500,000 cash. At the district level, the best three students in
each educational district shall receive
N150,000, N100,000 and N50,000 each with
laptop computers. Anoher award that shall be presented that day
include YOANEA ambassador to the overall
best student. Joshua said sustainability of the scheme will
encourage indigenes to go to school and will
automatically place Lagos in the list of states
with high number of educated individuals in
the country.

WAEC: 21,193 Out Of 51,604 Students In Lagos Had Credits In Five Subject

Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola on
Saturday said 21,193 out of the 51,604
students in the state public schools, who sat
for the 2013 May/June WAEC, had credits in
five subjects. Speaking at a programme to commemorate
the 2,300 days of his administration in Ikeja,
Fashola said that the five subjects included
English Language and Mathematics. According to him, the performance translated
into 41.06 per cent pass rate, adding that it
was an improvement on the 39 per cent
recorded in 2012. Fashola said that the performance showed
that the various government interventions in
education, especially the “Secondary School
EKO Project, paid off.” “If one recalls that we started with a pass rate
of seven per cent in 2007,one will appreciate
how far we have come, to now record an over
41 per cent pass rate. “Similarly, the results of our 2013 JSS
placement examination showed that more
pupils are getting into our secondary schools
as 95,255 candidates passed. “This translates into 96 per cent pass rate and
the number of candidates who passed almost
doubles the 49,316 that we had in 2012. “All of these are indeed good news for us and
it only means that, as far as our children’s
education is concerned, we are heading in the
right direction,” he said. Fashola, however, said that the government
would not rest on its oars, as it would
continue to give attention to schools’
infrastructure and other essentials to improve
performance.The governor appealed to
stakeholders, especially proprietors of private schools, to co-operate with the state
government in delivering qualitative education
in the state. He also urged proprietors to adhere to
approved curricula and uphold other
standards prescribed by government. “I also use this occasion to appeal for the co-
operation of all school proprietors towards
achieving a unified school calendar for our
state. “We expect all our schools, whether
government or privately owned, to open on
the same day and close on the same day. “There are many positive consequences for
these- ranging from transportation, planning,
career development and we hope they will
show understanding and comply,” he said. Fashola said the various sectors of governance
had recorded positive development in the last
100 days. He said his administration, through
support for the police, had been able to keep
crime rate at bay, adding that some criminals
who had terrorised the state had been nabbed. Fashola stated that the judiciary had also been
able to secure landmark judgments for the
state during the period. He listed some of the favourable judgments as
the Supreme Court’s verdict which gave the
control of hotels to the state and the one
ordering the National Population Commission
(NPC) to conduct fresh census in 14 local
government areas. Fashola said the state government had filed
an appeal against the acquittal of former Chief
Security Officer (CSO), to late Gen. Sanni
Abacha, Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha, by the
Appeal Court. “We filed an appeal because we place
premium on human lives and that the families
of the victims deserve the right to agitate the
matter at the highest,” he said. Fashola also said over 200 inner city roads
were being constructed across the state and
some roads, including the 7km Ibeshe road in
Ikorodu had been delivered. According to him, the health and
transportation sectors had equally witnessed
positive developments in the last 100 days
with the provision of more health facilities and
additional BRT buses in the state. He therefore restated his administration’s
commitment to delivering more
developmental projects to residents and urged
them to pay their taxes to facilitate this. Present at the occasion were a former
governor of the state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande
and Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu among
others.

ASUU Vows To Continue Strike

he president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Nasir Faggae has vowed that the union would not succumb to any pressure to call off its six weeks old strike if all its demands are not met by the government.

Mr. Fagge told journalists in Abuja that although negotiations have continued, there’s nothing yet on the table. He said the union remains resolute in sustaining the ongoing strike action to ensure that the topical issues affecting the nation’s university system are tackled decisively once and for all.

However, the chairman of the Needs Assessment Committee of the Nigerian Universities, Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue state says the public holidays have stalled the smooth progress made so far, but if all goes according to plan, the strike may be called off next week and also assured Nigerians that the industrial dispute will be resolved.

The President of ASUU, Professor Nasir Faggae was not under pressure to call off the strike,as  he insisted that the union is resolute in sustaining the ongoing strike action if the issues in contention are not met, inspite of appeals by the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayat Rufai who tried to avoid the media at the presidential villa. She however called on ASUU to sheathe their sword while negotiations are in progress.