NEWS:‘ASUU’s strike to save universities from total collapse’

Education

WorldStage Newsonline-- The four month old strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is to save Nigerian universities from total collapse, according to Dr. Beke Sese, Chairman ASUU, Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State chapter

Sese at an interactive session with journalists in Port Harcourt on Monday, noted that the industrial action had no political undertone and not targeted at President Goodluck Jonathan or his administration, but to protest the deplorable condition of public universities in Nigeria.

 The don pointed out that with the way ASUU was organised, the union’s president, in spite of where he hails from, would not be able to call out the members to embark on strike or suspend strike, without recourse to its National Executive Committee (NEC).

Sese said: “The current ASUU strike is not politically motivated. ASUU members are not being sponsored by politicians. None of the members can sway other members towards his or her political inclination, since ASUU is not a political organisation.

“Imputing political motive to the strike is a calculated attempt by some persons to deploy propaganda gimmicks to the cause of the university teachers, in order to divert attention from the real issues that informed the strike.

“When the current Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, was ASUU president, the members did not compromise, when there was similar strike, during the regime of the late Gen. Sani Abacha.

“This is the first time that ASUU members have embarked on a protracted strike, which centres on funding of the universities and improvement of the infrastructure. The funds so far released by the Federal Government are grossly inadequate. The 2009 agreement must be fully implemented.

“The Federal Government has reneged on its promise. It is sad that in 2013, we are still talking about the same 2009 agreement. Strike has never been a good thing, but it is inevitable in this circumstance.

 “There is a deliberate and systematic destruction of public universities in the country. It must stop forthwith. The poor state of affairs in Nigerian public universities has been making wealthy Nigerians to be sending their children and wards to private universities in the country or better-equipped universities overseas.”

The ASUU chairman also stated that while the public universities in Nigeria were being allowed to rot, the private ones were flourishing and springing up everywhere.

He noted that the Federal Government’s adamant posture on the 2009 agreement was a reflection of the lip service being paid to university education in the country.

Sese stressed that the time for the Federal Government to accord priority to the education sector was now, noting that arm-twisting the ASUU members or non-payment of their salaries would never work.

He admonished President Jonathan, a doctorate and a former teacher, to write his name in gold, by fully implementing the 2009 agreement, in line with his administration’s transformation agenda.

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