ALL ABOUT UNIBEN AND PHARMACY

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), are hopeful ahead of their meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday and expressed optimism that the four-month old strike, will be called off soon.

The union say they expect the meeting to be mutually beneficial, as they seek to find a lasting solution to the context of the implementation of the 2009 agreement, the 2012 MOU and the recommendations of the Needs Assessment Report. However, ASUU warned that any proposal by the federal government, would be based on a clear acceptance of a framework for the implementation of the 2009 agreement and added that any attempt to impose decisions will not work.

In a statement by its Chairperson from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia state , Dr. Uzochukwu Onyebinama, ASUU asked President Jonathan “to be guided by the principle of honouring agreements in the interest of justice and industrial harmony in the country.

“As the National leadership of our union, the Academic Staff Union of Universities meet with his Excellency, President Goodluck Jonathan, tomorrow 4th November 2013 [tomorrow], we hope that the meeting will be a dialogue that will lead to a mutually acceptable fair and far reaching solution within the context of the implementation of the 2009 agreement, the 2012 MOU and the recommendations of the Needs Assessment Report.

“Any proposal by government should be based on a clear acceptance of a framework for the implementation of the 2009 agreement. Any imposition will not present a solution to the current crisis.

“We therefore call on the President and Commander- in- chief of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan to be guided by the principle of honouring agreements in the interest of justice and industrial harmony in the country”.

The ASUU strike 2013 continues, and the latest update is a confirmation that President Goodluck Jonathan will re-open the universities, with or without an agreement with the union.

A union leader told This Day Live that it has received information confirming a report by Scan News that the president will open the universities regardless of whether an agreement is reached.

The president and the union are meeting today to try to come to an agreement, but the union recently rejected an offer from the federal government of $200 billion, which had been increased from the previous offers of $130 billion and $150 billion.

Dr. Thephilus Lagithe, the branch chairman of the union at Nassarawa State University Keffi, said that the federal government actually owes the union $100 billion that was supposed to be paid last year, in addition to $400 billion for this year. And, Lagithe told the Leadership, next year the government is supposed to pay an additional $500 billion.

The strike started in July after the union claimed that the government isn’t following an agreement reached in 2009. Senators recently expressed shock over the demands of the union.

Union leaders say that if President Jonathan really does order the re-opening of universities without an agreement, it will meet with stiff resistance.

Clement Chup, union chairman for the University of Abuja chapter, said that anything short of following the 2009 agreement is not acceptable.

“The attention of our union is drawn to some recent reports in some media alleging that the President of Nigeria will direct the re-opening of all Nigerian universities with or without an amicable resolution with ASUU,” Chup said in a statement.

“Authoritarian posturing has never solved and will not solve the impasse. We are calling on Mr President to toe the path of honor and, as a democrat, respect the 2009 Agreement,” he added. “This is the surest and the shortest route to industrial harmony in the University system and the fastest approach to revitalizing the system.”

Nwachukwu Anyim is the chairman of the union’s branch at the University of Uyo. He said in a statement that if the president did re-open universities without an end to the strike, it would be “a show of force” that could only, at best, result in a “pyrrhic victory.”

That phrase means “A victory won at excessive cost,” or “A victory in which the victor’s losses are as great as those of the defeated,” according to dictionary definitions.

Gabriel Suswam, the Benue state governor, told This Day Live that he’s not sure what the strike is over, as all agreements between the union and his committee have been met.

I believe the whole issue has been politicized just to discredit and paint a picture of Jonathan as a non-performer,” he said.

THE latest round of strikes by the Academic Union of Universities (ASUU), has once again reached a dead end. After protracted negotiations, which ended with the Federal Government offering a concession that totalled N130 billion, which the union rejected insisting on full implementation of the 2009 agreement it signed, no further positive progress has been recorded towards ending the stand-off.

Rather, both sides are pitched in guerrilla warfare. While ASUU accuses the Federal Government of sponsoring groups, including students, to protest against it, it has resorted to city-by-city protests, which are invariably suppressed by the police. Both sides are now engaged in media exchanges, with propaganda and political mudslinging freely used. Meanwhile, students have already lost the equivalent of one term sitting at home and waiting in vain for an end to the strike.

With the tussle now stalemated both sides are clearly at the end of their wits. They are looking for outside help. It is time for a credible, patriotic third party to step in and moderate the fight to bring it to an end.

This is the role required of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and its well meaning affiliates to play. We are, therefore, dismayed at the threat by the NLC, after its recent meeting in Kaduna, to call a nationwide strike over alleged Federal Government sponsorship of protests against ASUU. If they should carry out this threat, NLC will definitely not be contributing positively to this matter.

Labour should cast aside partisanship and wear the matured toga of an unbiased moderator, even though ASUU is one of their affiliates. There are times when, even an interest group such as organised Labour, can stand above narrow interests in the overall interest of the nation. This is one such opportunities.

We will recall how in 2011, Labour, including its former President, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State, intervened to end that year’s round of bitter strikes to give the nation a two-year breather. Oshiomhole played that patriotic role in spite of belonging to the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a strong opposition party. This is the same attitude required to help the nation out of this logjam.

We call on the Federal Government, National Assembly, ASUU, NLC and selected eminent Nigerians to form a new team to mediate the rift and completely overhaul the educational system. They should produce a document that will form a new national roadmap.

Our educational challenges are now too tough to be left to the FG and ASUU alone.

Recent Police interference in peaceful protests by education unions has become a cause for concern by stakeholders in the sector. Just last weekend, protesting primary school teachers and pupils in Makurdi, Benue State, were dispersed with teargas by the state police. In the past week alone, police authorities in Bayelsa, Rivers and Cross River ordered the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities, (ASUU) not to go on with their planned peaceful protests.

It would be recalled that teachers and primary school pupils who took to the streets to protest what the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) described as the state government’s inability to pay their minimum wage, blocked the road to disrupt traffic, and chanted: “No school, no road”.

Shortly after the pupils numbering over 500 blocked the road, the police arrived the scene throwing canisters to disperse the crowd. When contacted, the state Police Commissioner, Adams Audu, told newsmen that it was not right for the teachers to block roads in protest for their salaries when, they could have employed the dialogue approach.”It doesn’t make sense for teachers to start burning tyres on the roads when they could simply dialogue,” he said.

The police order, issued against the planned public procession by the ASUU, Niger Delta University chapter, was reportedly signed by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hillary Okpara. The situation was similar at the University of Calabar (UNICAL) last Monday. Vanguard Learning gathered that at about 6 a.m last Monday, there were over 500 police officers who had cordoned off the entire university.

The Chairman, ASUU UNICAL, Dr. James Okpiliya told our reporters that: “As a result of the police presence, a lot of people gathered around the university to find out what was going on. So the plan of the police backfired, because even though we couldn’t go into the streets, the people from the streets who came to find out what happened were much more than our colleagues who gathered to protest. As a result of this, we were able to accurately educate them on the real reasons behind the strike.”

Continuing, Okpiliya said: “ASUU UNICAL, as well as our comrades from Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH) had a directive at the congress level to hold a peaceful protest on Monday. The intention was to clear the air about a lot of false pro-government information been disseminated, and clearly stating the reasons why ASUU is on strike. We wanted the Nigerian people to get the truth about the issues.

In preparations for the rally, we wrote a letter to the Commissioner of Police, telling them when and where the rally will hold, and asking them to provide security. The police commissioner later invited us for a meeting, telling us that the police had orders from above to stop the protests. We told the commissioner that this was not possible because we had made the decision at the NEC level, we also told him that we would go on with rally. It does make one wonder what kind of a democracy we have if intellectuals under a union recognized by law cannot hold peaceful protests, but miscreants can.”

The Chairman, Joint Action Front, Dr. Dipo Fashina also questioned the right of the police to stop the protests. “Under the laws governing this country, unions have the right to hold peaceful protests. These people were not breaking any law, in actual fact, it is the police who broke the law. The Police is a Federal Agency; so both the police, and whoever it was that gave them the directive to stop the protests, should be condemned,” he opined.

Speaking on the issue, the ASUU Chairman, Dr. Nasir Isa Faggae said: “In reality, this is a contradiction on the part of the government. When people are protesting against ASUU, under aegis that are not recognized by law, they do not face any opposition from law enforcement. But when law abiding unions like ours choose to exercise our rights, we are stopped by the police. The denial of the right to lawful assembly is a clear breach of the constitution.”

The National Coordinator, Education Rights Campaign (ERC), Mr. Hassan Soweto, called for the “immediate removal of the State Commissioner of Police and his trial for ordering the firing of tear gas on little children.” Continuing, Soweto said: “We call on Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswam to tender an unreserved apology to the pupils and their parents and go ahead to immediately implement the N18, 000 minimum wage law to teachers and all categories of workers in the State so schools can be reopened.

Governor Suswam’s despicable treatment of teachers and brutal clampdown on primary school pupils in his own State says all that need to be said about his alleged concern for public education.” The ERC argued that “the series of crimes and ignominy committed almost on a daily basis by this government in its bid to force down peoples throat, the neo-liberal agenda of a privatised, neglected and commercialised education system as opposed to a public education system has become alarming.

For instance over the last two weeks, the Nigerian police has been hunting down, attacking and restricting striking lecturers and all those who support the on-going struggle of University and Polytechnic lecturers to save public education. But compared to all these, the attacks on Benue primary school pupils is especially shocking, wicked and unconscionable.

This chilling brutality on little children in Makurdi whose only crime was their support for their teachers struggle for better working conditions is a new low in the blood-stained record of the Nigerian Police. Despite their age, the pupils were brutally dispersed by police who shot tear gas canisters in their midst. The fact that no one died is not an excuse to maintain silence on this matter.”

Whether these incidents have been politically orchestrated to clamp down the education unions, or are simply the workings of overzealous policemen, remains to be seen.

But as the National Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, Dr. Chibuzor Asomugha put it: “I cannot say for sure the motives behind these recent happenings, but one thing is for sure: there seems to be a pattern to these police interference, and one can only guess that they are following orders. In any case, it is quite unfortunate that such a thing is happening in a democratic society such as ours