Goodluck Jonathan, Peter Obi Address ASUU Strike as the Situation gets out of Hand.
ASUU strike, which is now 200 days old, has been transmuted to a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action beginning from 12:01 am on Monday 29th August 2022. This was revealed by the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, at the ASUU National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja on Sunday 28th August 2022.
ASUU NEC observed with regret that the Union had experienced a lot of deceit of the highest level in the last five and half years as the Federal Government of Nigeria engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiations without a display of utmost fidelity.
This unfortunate situation which has caused thousands of university students to sit at home for months has gathered much attention. For one, former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan addressed the issue in Abuja on Wednesday during a conference to mark the 70th birthday of the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Hassan Kukah.
As he narrated how his government tried to resolve a lingering ASUU strike in one night, he said, “During my time too, ASUU had four months of the strike. Different committees were meeting but nothing was working. I said ‘How can our children stay out of school for four good months?”
“So I had to call a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU. I presided over the meeting with my vice president. I said that night we must resolve the problem. The Attorney General was there…and everybody that had to do with it (strike). And I thought that my being there would help us do things quickly. But we spent the whole night. We finished like 5:30 am and the strike was called off”, Jonathan said.
The Labour Party Presidential Candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, also addressed the strike via his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday. “Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome, and unacceptable that FGN would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students. It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith”, he stated.
According to ASUU, none of the issues that forced the Union to resume its suspended strike as listed in the December 2020 FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) has been satisfactorily addressed by the government to date. “The draft renegotiated FGN-ASUU Agreement (second draft) remains unsigned; the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has not been adopted and deployed to replace the discredited Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); and White Papers on Visitation Panels to Federal Universities, if ready as claimed by Government more than six months ago, are nowhere to be found”, Prof. Osodeke noted.
“Similarly, Government has not delivered on the promised balance of one tranche of the Revitalization Fund more than one year after, the outstanding two tranches of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) have not been released; and nothing has happened on the promised support for an amendment to the Law of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stem the tide of the proliferation of universities, especially by the State Governments”, ASUU President emphasized.
In another development, the Federal Government has summoned vice-chancellors, pro-chancellors, and chairmen of governing councils of Federal Universities to a meeting with the Honourable Minister of Education, scheduled to hold at the National Universities Commission (NUC) Secretariat, Abuja on Tuesday, 6th September 2022 by 11:00 am. The meeting was convened in a letter signed by NUC deputy executive secretary, Administration, Chris Mayaki, on behalf of the Executive Secretary, as part of efforts to resolve the issues arising from the prolonged ASUU strike.
The lingering ASUU strike portrays an exacerbation of the deplorable condition of tertiary education in Nigeria. While it has been said that the Union’s struggle is aimed at saving public universities and affording a common Nigerian student quality education, the delay, disruption, and discomfort it has brought to students, parents, and other concerned individuals are very questionable. Nigerians are keeping their fingers crossed as events unfold.
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