BY AKINWALE ABOLUWADE, IBADAN
The Federal Government has alleged the Academic Staff Union of Universities of insincerity considering the reasons being given for embarking on its one-month warning strike.
Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said he did not receive any official communication from the university teachers regarding the warning strike.
The minister was quoted as saying that “Proactively, we have been working with the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council, co-chaired by the Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar and Rev. Samson Ayekunle, President of Christian Association of Nigeria. They have held two meetings with ASUU. In labour administration and labour parlance, it is allowed; it is called tripartite plus.
“So, as the conciliator, the president has directed me with the Minister of Education and Chief of Staff to liaise with NIREC and so we are in communication with the NIREC secretariat and the Sultan himself, who was attending to other issues over the week.
‘’They have held two meetings with ASUU and they told the lecturers to give them a chance to look into the matter fully and I have equally briefed them on the situation of things. So, I don’t know how ASUU has now declared a strike and called it a warning strike. There is nothing like a warning strike.”
At a press briefing in Lagos on Monday, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said that the decision to embark on strike became necessary because the Federal Government ignored its demands.
The National Executive Council of ASUU said that the Federal Government was not committed to meeting its demands.
The union also said that it would sanction some of its members, including the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, involved in the conferment of Professor of Cyber-security on the Minister of Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami.
The union, asking the minister to resign his position for breaching due process as he could not be a serving minister and still occupy a professorial seat in a university, said it was unfortunate that the education sector had been left by the government to rot.
Osodeke was quoted as saying, “A lot of shenanigans are being perpetrated by people in government. One is the professorship conferred on Minister Isa Patami. He is not a lecturer at FUTO and if he wants to be, let him resign his position and go and teach. All those involved would be sanctioned by our union, including the vice-chancellor.”
On proliferation of universities in the country, it called for N30bn take-off grant for new ones before approval is given.
“Proliferation of universities is embarrassing. Every senator now has a bill in which they are demanding that universities be set up in their constituencies without adequate provisions made for the funding.
“We are suggesting that the law mandating the National Universities Commission to license new universities to be amended to ensure that, at least, a new university would have a take-off grant of not less than N30 billion kept somewhere.
“Some state governments that are owing lecturers in their universities over six months salary arrears are also setting up new ones. That is a huge joke. Where will they get money to fund them?” he asked.
On the role being played by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board in the admission of students, he said, “It is the duty of the Senate of a university to admit students into the university. The role of JAMB is to conduct the matriculation examinations.
‘’Now, the board has taken over the role of the Senate and it is going beyond its brief. Admission is purely an academic affair, not an administrative one.”
Osodeke stated that the union would appraise the situation and take the next step after the expiration of the four-week warning strike.
