Presidency Warns ASUU Against Pushing its Luck
President Goodluck Jonathan
•Urges compliance with chapters’ resolution as UniAbuja re-opens
•APC, labour unions fault threat to sack lecturers
Ahead of the December 4 deadline given by the federal government to the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its strike, the
presidency has said the federal government will do all that is needful
to ensure that public universities are opened by Wednesday.
The statement from the presidency coincided with the decision by the
University of Abuja (UniAbuja) to comply with the federal government’s
directive to vice-chancellors (VCs) to re-open the universities.
UniAbuja is one of a few universities that have defied ASUU in recent
weeks. The VCs of Osun and Ebonyi State Universities ordered the
re-opening of their schools early last week, while the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka is set to resume classes today.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant
to the President, Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said: “The president
will do the needful to ensure that the universities are opened on
Wednesday. Do you think that the government is a joker? Do you think
that the government will say something it does not mean?”
The presidency also accused ASUU leadership of refusing to obey the
resolution of the chapters of the unions, saying the ASUU leadership had
refused to accede to the wishes of 42 of its 61 chapters nationwide,
who voted in favour of the agreement reached with the president to call
off the strike.
“Instead, in a surprise volte face, the union presented government
again with a new set of demands and considerations outside the terms
agreed at the presidential intervention,” Okupe said.
The presidential aide accused the ASUU leadership of not taking its
responsibility seriously by wasting seven days before scheduling a
meeting.
“When the meeting eventually held, the leadership decided to thwart and
undemocratically override the expressed will of a majority of its
chapters to call off the strike.
“This action is contrary to the established practice and procedure of
any democratic labour institution, which ASUU is expected to be,” Okupe
charged.
He observed that when the federal government “had reached an agreement
with ASUU to make available N100 billion for the provision of
infrastructure of 61 universities covered in the NEEDS assessment
report, with a further commitment of N200 billion over the next two
years, and N40 billion of the N90 billion earned allowances demanded by
the lecturers, one would have expected them to reconsider their stand.”
“This was despite the fact that the ASUU leadership in the meeting with
President Jonathan curiously failed to articulate the basis of the N90
billion demanded as earned allowances, which has been on the table since
2009,” he said.
Accordingly, Okupe said it had become crystal clear that the federal
government had shown good faith and commendable commitment by acceding
to most of the demands of ASUU.
“This ordinarily ought to be a thing of pride and an outstanding
achievement for ASUU having been able to secure these unprecedented
concessions as a direct benefit of the prolonged and painful five-month
strike
“However, the negative disposition of the ASUU leadership is unarguably
a pre-conceived and calculated treacherous plot pointedly intended to
undermine the presidency and subvert the Federal Government of Nigeria,”
Okupe said.
The president’s aide was of the opinion that ASUU’s leadership, by its
action, has a political motive, adding, “This is clearly a hallmark of a
leadership that is determined to employ subterfuge in an attempt to
hold government, students, their parents and other stakeholders to
ransom in a reckless and irresponsible display of insensitivity,
lawlessness and absolute lack of patriotism and even the fear of God.
“Unfortunately, all this is perpetuated using unsuspecting but
otherwise loyal, patriotic and responsible members of ASUU whose
families are also sad victims of this reprehensible and callous attitude
of their leadership.
“From all indications therefore, and other information available to
government, it has become obvious that this is no longer an altruistic
strike borne out of good intentions and aimed at improving the welfare
of students and staff of the universities and the standards of our
educational institutions.
“Rather it is an evil programme motivated by selfish political interests and motivations within the polity.”
Okupe, who made references to the sack of recalcitrant air traffic
controllers by the late US President Ronald Reagan in August1981, said:
“It is also pertinent to note that the new demands of the ASUU
leadership unwittingly question the integrity of Mr. President.
“However, for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state without
equivocation that contrary to expressed fears, President Jonathan is
widely known to be a God-fearing individual who has consistently
honoured his word and commitment to the Nigerian people.
“He is not such a person as to single out anyone for selective
punishment neither will he make anyone a scapegoat. Having said this, it
is delightful and very gratifying to note that many reasonable and
patriotic lecturers in several universities have decided to comply with
the order of government and are ready to return to classes on or before
the December 4 deadline.
“We salute their courage, commitment to their calling and loyalty to
their nation. These are indeed the true patriots and the national heroes
of this prolonged and painful struggle.
“We want to assure them that the government will take every step to
protect them in their effort to comply with the government directives
and their desire to discharge their lawful duties to the suffering
Nigerian students, our universities and our dear country.”
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday deplored the
federal government's sack threat issued against striking university
teachers in a bid to force them to end their strike.
The party said the resort to such military-era tactics reflects the
poverty of ideas on the part of government, to resolve the prolonged
ASUU strike.
In a statement issued by its interim National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party in particular criticised the supervising
Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, for the way he talked down on
the striking teachers, while issuing the ill-advised,
go-back-to-work-or-be-sacked threat.
APC said ASUU was right in demanding certain benchmarks, including the
non-victimisation clause and the need for a senior government official,
like the Attorney-General of the Federation, to sign the agreement,
before calling off its strike, in view of the fact that the federal
government has a history of reneging on its agreements.
“Wike's language was crude, his presentation was rude and his threat
was demeaning and counter-productive. We believe his lack of finesse and
the inability to think out of the box in handling the whole strike
issue will not bode well for a quick resolution of the crisis.
“We also disagree with the minister's inference that the lecturers
should automatically call off the strike because the president
intervened and sat for long hours with them. It is this unnecessary
deification of a democratically-elected president that has almost turned
this president into an emperor.
“What is the big deal in President Jonathan sitting with ASUU members,
his former colleagues for that matter? What is a president elected to
do if not to solve problems?” it queried.
APC said it was unfortunate that Wike was threatening to sack
university teachers at a time there is a shortfall of 60,000 lecturers
in Nigerian universities, adding that the threat itself had shown that
the federal government does not understand the enormity of the problems
facing public universities in particular and the education sector in
general.
On its part, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has described as “hasty”
the ultimatum issued to the striking members of ASUU by the federal
government, adding that the announcement was not properly ruminated
over.
The acting Secretary General of the congress, Mr. Chris Uyot, in a
telephone conversation with THISDAY yesterday said Wike should have
considered the ongoing efforts put into resolving the crisis by the
president.
“The minister should have thought the issue through before making the
announcement. He was hasty because considering an issue as serious as
the ASUU strike, the efforts which Mr. President has put in meeting the
ASUU leadership, and the offer that was made to ASUU, if all those were
taken into consideration, the minister would not have said so,” he said.
“The offer currently before ASUU was as a result of that discussion.
When you have an offer, there is supposed to be a counter-offer or not.
If there is a counter offer, it is possible to sit down and talk about
it again, or simply listen to it. That is the process of industrial
relations,” Uyot added.
When reminded that the minister might have acted on the directives of
the president, the labour leader said: “I am not here to speak for the
movement, but the minister made the statement. He should have allowed
the process to be consummated. The other party presented a
counter-offer and you just go to the press. But I believe strongly that
the minister is lying.”
When reminded that NLC had described the new offer made by the federal
government following the November 4 meeting as acceptable, Uyot
clarified that while the NLC might have found it acceptable, it was not
in the place of the movement to accept the offer, but the place of ASUU.
He, however, acknowledged that the November 4 meeting was the most
meaningful meeting between the federal government and ASUU since signing
the agreement in 2009.
In the same vein, the former President General of the Trade Union
Congress (TUC), Mr. Peter Esele, said the ultimatum issued by the
federal government had further widened the divide towards resolving the
impasse, which entered its sixth month yesterday.
Esele, in a telephone conversation, said there would have been a better
way to go around the new offer to ensure that any misgiving ASUU has,
are factored in.
“But the Office of the President should also be respected. If the
president has spent 13 hours, we should also try and see how to give him
the benefit of the doubt. But the ultimatum has further widened the gap
because it is like we are in a military era.
“Sometimes, we personalise issues, even the way Wike communicated the
information, you could see his person showing in the whole thing,” Esele
said.
Meanwhile, following the directive of the federal government on the
re-opened universities, UniAbuja has opened for students to resume their
studies.
Speaking with THISDAY, the Director of Public Relations of the
institution, Mallam Waziri Garba, said the students had been instructed
to resume since from yesterday.
He was however not sure whether lecturers would be available or not, stating: “We would have to wait and see.”
