The Presidency yesterday took over negotiation with the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
Vice President, Namadi Sambo met with ASUU delegation last night at the
Presidential Villa to discuss possible ways of resolving the more than
two months old strike in order for the lecturers to return to the
classrooms.
A committee headed by Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam had been
in charge of the negotiations since the beginning of the strike, but has
not been able to resolve the matter.
However, after yesterday’s meeting, the leadership of the union declined to disclose what was agreed upon.
ASUU President, Nasir Isa Fagge said that they took a message from
the government and will meet their members and get back to government.
He declined to disclose the content of the message in respect of what
the government may have offered the union in addition to the earlier
N100bn and N30bn meant for infrastructure development in the various
universities and payment of verified earned allowances respectively.
Faggae said: “We have had a meeting with the Vice President and he
has given us a message to our members. I will say that like the
messengers we are, we are going to take the message faithfully to our
members and then our members will take their decision and then, we will
get back to the minister of education.”
Meanwhile, the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of federal universities,
yesterday appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to
call-off its over two months old strike and return to classrooms, in
the interest of the country.
The committee made the appeal in a communiqué signed by its Chairman,
Prof. Kimse Okoko, as a follow-up to their September 10 meeting, which
held in Abuja.
Lamenting the consequences that have attended the strike, the
pro-chancellors noted that the Federal Government has shown
“demonstrable” commitment towards the implementation of the 2009
agreement it reached with ASUU, which invariably, forms the basis of the
lingering industrial dispute.
Specifically, the communiqué noted that the government has started
disbursing the N130billion it promised, direct to the universities.
The pro-chancellors further observed that the Federal Government has
held several meetings with ASUU, the Committee of Pro-Chancellors, the
Committee of Vice-Chancellors and all other relevant stakeholders all in
a bid to resolve the imbroglio.
They further noted that all teaching and non-teaching staff of
universities have been on Consolidated Salary Structure since 2009.
“Amendment to the pensionable retirement age of academics has been
effected through the legislative process. Professors and Readers now
retire at 70 years, while others now retire at 65 instead of 60 years,”
the communiqué added.
In a related development, the planned protests by the Joint Action
Fronts, JAF, in solidarity with unions in the educational sector shut
down commercial activities as well as vehicular movements in some parts
of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital yesterday.
The JAF protest, which consists of members of ASUU and some human
right activists, lecturers and students under the umbrella of the
National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, also led to hot
altercations between the police and the protesters.
JAF had organised the protest as a way of sensitising the general
public on the danger of the lingering strike by ASUU and the breakdown
of negotiation between the two parties involved in the crisis.
The protest, which took off from the NNPC junction at Abiola Way,
spread to Kuto, Isabo, Kemta, Ibara and other parts of the city, leading
to serious traffic in the affected areas.
There was heavy presence of policemen and other security agencies across major areas where the protest took place.
A mild drama ensued at the NNPC Mega Station junction, where the
protest took off as the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of
Operation, AbdulMajeed Ahmad engaged some of the activists in a serious
altercation over the blockage of the highway.
Addressing the protesters, the Secretary of JAF, Comrade Tunde Aremu
stated that the strike was not about ASUU or any other unions in the
education sector, but about the masses.
In his own remark, NANS President in the state, Damilola Ahmed said
his members were in solidarity with all the unions in the sector, adding
that the government has not been fair on the funding of education in
the country.
In a related development, the Needs Assessment Implementation
Committee for Public Universities in Nigeria, chaired by the Benue State
governor, Gabriel Suswam, has constituted monitoring teams to oversee
the execution of various infrastructure projects on the campuses of the
59 federal and state universities, which are beneficiaries of the N100bn
intervention fund.
The composition of the monitoring teams was the high point of the
committee’s meeting, held yesterday at the Benue State Governor’s Lodge,
Asokoro, Abuja.
The meeting, chaired by Governor Suswam was attended by the Minister
of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, representatives of the Senate
and House of Representatives’ Committees on Education and Dr MacJohn
Nwaobiala, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Minisry of Education,
the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, NUC, and
leaders of industrial unions in the university system (NASU, SSANU and
NAATS) with the acting Executive Secretary of TeTFund, Mallam Aliyu
Na’Iya as Secretary.
I
have been married to my darling wife a few years now, I work in Abuja
and she works in Lagos making us to spend less time together.
