President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday, assured that the protracted
four months’ old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) would be called off as he has personally taken over the
negotiations with the leadership of the union.
Prior to yesterday’s meeting with President Jonathan, he had at
various fora appealed to the striking lecturers to call off the strike
in the interest of the future generation of leaders and the nation, but
ASUU remained adamant.
But the president assured yesterday that end was in sight shortly
before the formal commencement of the meeting between the Federal
Government’s team led by him and the striking lecturers while exchanging
pleasantries with the ASUU leadership, the leadership of the Nigeria
Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC). This was happening
as the Senate President, David Mark’s meeting with the lecturers ended
with any solution to the crisis yesterday.
President Jonathan, who arrived the venue of the meeting scheduled at
the conference room of the First Lady’s wing of the Presidential Villa
at about 2.40 pm, while welcoming the ASUU team who were already seated
at about 2.pm, said while greeting the ASUU President, “My president,
all the problems will be over today, all our children must go back to
school.”
And to the NLC president, Jonathan also said: “My president, with you
around today, there will be no problem; our agreement is signed sealed
and delivered.”
As at the time of filing this report at about 5.02 pm, the meeting,
which commenced at about 2.40 pm, was still in progress and the outcome
was yet to be ascertained.
However, at about 6.30 pm, the ASUU negotiating team led by its
President, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge, came out of the meeting to consult among
themselves and possibly with its members who were not at the venue of
the meeting through telephone calls.
However as they left the meeting conference room, they entered into a
bus outside and in front of the entrance into the First Lady’s wing of
the Presidential Villa for their consultations.
While they were consulting, the NLC and the TUC teams, on one hand,
and the Federal Government team, on the other hand, were left inside the
conference room waiting for the return of the ASUU team.
Although, it could not be confirmed what the government was pressing
for, it was said that the government may have been pushing for immediate
end of the strike.
The ASUU team, while on consultation break which lasted about 30
minutes, declined to answer State House correspondents’ questions,
saying that they were coming back.
Besides President Jonathan, the government’s team at yesterday’s
meeting had Vice President Namadi Sambo, Minister of Labour, Chief
Emeka Wogu, Minister of State, Education, who is the supervising
Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike; Secretary to the Government of the
Federation, Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim; Executive Secretary of the National
Universities Commission, Prof Julius Okogie; Minister of Finance and
Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chief of
Staff, Chief Mike Oghiadhome, and Permanent Secretary in the Federal
Ministry of Education, Dr. Mac John Nwaobiala.
The ASUU negotiating team was led by the NLC President, Comrade
Abdulwaheed Omar; the Trade Union President, Bobboi Kaigama; the
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) President, Dr. Nasir Isa
Fagge, who led nine members of national leadership of the union,
including his deputy, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, three past presidents of
ASUU, Professors Festus Iyayi, Dipo Fashina and Abdullahi Sule-Kano.
Other members of ASUU’s delegation were Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr. Victor
Igbum and Professor Victor Osodeke.
Prior to yesterday’s meeting, the Presidency had on September 20
taken over negotiations with the striking lecturers as the meeting
between the union and Vice President Sambo lasted for about one and half
hours without the disclosure of its outcome.
Although, prodded by waiting journalists on the outcome of the
meeting, the ASUU National President, Dr. Fagge explained that the
government had given them a message which he intend to deliver to the
union.
He declined to disclose the content of the message, but stated that
government may have offered the union additional funds to the earlier
ones of N100 billion and N30 billion meant for infrastructure
development in various universities and payment of verified earned
allowances respectively.
The ASUU delegation who met with Sambo was led by Fagge, his deputy,
Fashina, Sule-Kano and two professors. The government delegation was led
by the Supervising Minister of Education, Chief Wike, with the
Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Okojie, with Vice Chancellors of
Bayero University Kano (BUK), University of Ibadan (UI) and Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU) Bauchi, Professors Abdulrasheed
Abubakar, Isaac Adewole and Muhammed Hamisu Muhammed respectively.
Also, on October 29, Sambo met with vice chancellors and delegates of the ASUU.
However, the meeting between Senate President David Mark and the
leadership of ASUU also yesterday ended without any agreement between
the two groups.
The Senate had in a resolution mandated Mark to mediate in the
disagreement between the striking lecturers and the Federal Government
over the non-implementation of the 2010 agreement between ASUU and
Federal Government.
But the two groups could not agree on calling off the four months
strike, although the union expressed optimism that the intervention of
the Senate president might bring a lasting solution to the crisis.
Speaking in an interview after a closed door session with the Senate,
ASUU President, Dr. Fagge, said the meeting was convened at the
instance of the Senate president and that after presenting their
position, the union was waiting for the Senate’s reaction to their
position.
When asked whether the closed door meeting was conclusive, Fagge
answered in the negative, but insisted that the intervention by the
Senate president was a welcome development in order to get the crisis
resolved for the universities to be re-opened.
Earlier before the closed door meeting, Senate President Mark said,
“As you are aware, I have been mandated by the Senate to meet with you
and the Federal Government to resolve this crisis as soon as possible,
so that the children will go back to the classrooms and I believe that
is what you also want.
“So, we are on the same wavelength, it is just a matter of approach
to get it right. I sympathise with your cause and I believe whatever can
be done for you to go back to your work should be done and as quickly
as possible.
“I think this is long overdue for us to sort out. So, the
intervention as you may know, the Senate mandated me to talk to both
ASUU and talk with Mr. President and that is precisely what I’m doing.
“At the end of the day, it is not how long we dragged this matter
that is important, but how soon we sort it out. We will sort it out so
that there will be no winner, no loser.
“It is not a matter of ego; it is not a matter of who has an upper
hand or who has won in this dispute. National interest is what is at
stake; our students have been out of classrooms for four months now and
that is not in the best interest of anybody.
“We are not happy about it, the parents are not happy and the
government is not happy. So, if something is going on and we are not
happy about it, the proper thing is to have it resolved as quickly as
possible.”
On his own part, Fagge said, “Members of ASUU are not just lecturers.
We are also parents and also among us we have students who are pursuing
postgraduate degrees. So, this strike directly affects us negatively.
“But sir, it’s one of the sacrifices we really have to make to ensure
that we do what is right with our universities. Our major concern is
that Nigerian universities in terms of research, teaching and learning
environment do not compete with other universities at the international
level.
“We have also seen recently that previously we used to have migration
of students to universities in the western world and the eastern world,
but a recent phenomenon is that our students are even migrating to
universities in Ghana and neighbouring West African countries for
education.
“We look at that as a trend that we have to stop because Nigeria has
the capacity to have world class universities that would not only
attract Nigerian students, but also students from other African
countries.
“That is the major reason we decided to embark on this struggle to
get government to do what is right with our universities, so that
intellectuals in this country would be availed the opportunity to
contribute their quota to nation building.
“We are not happy with the products we are churning out of our
universities year in year out, because the response we are getting from
the labour market clearly indicates that our Nigerian students who are
graduating from our universities are not able to deliver in the job
environment.
“So, we thought we should find a way towards dialoguing with
government to get them to address this problem, so that we would also
contribute our quota to nation building.”
The ASUU president expressed happiness over the interest shown by the
upper legislative body’s Committee on Education to address the
multitude of problems bedevilling universities as well as the Senate
president’s interest in the matter, stressing that as far as the Senate
was concerned, the bucks stopped with them.
“We are convinced that whatever we come up with will go a long way
towards addressing the problem. Sir, we really appreciate your
intervention.
“We want to assure you that at every opportunity we have to dialogue
with people who can address the problem, we have to come with open mind
so that we can make the most out of that intervention. We are convinced
that your intervention will go a long way towards addressing the problem
in the universities,” he said.
Part
of the agreement dwelt on funding of universities where both parties
agreed that each federal university should get at least N1.5 trillion
between 2009 and 2011 while state universities, within the same period,
should receive N3.6 million per student.
Part
of the agreement dwelt on funding of universities where both parties
agreed that each federal university should get at least N1.5 trillion
between 2009 and 2011 while state universities, within the same period,
should receive N3.6 million per student.
