It was learnt that while the University of
Lagos, UNILAG, resolved to suspend the
strike, chapters like the University of
Ibadan, UI; University of Benin, UNIBEN;
University of Calabar, UNICAL;
University of Jos, UNIJOS and the Lagos
State University, LASU, said the strike
must continue, arguing that the Federal
Government could not be trusted to
fulfil its promise of injecting over N1.1
trillion to universities in the next five
years.
Voting at UNIJOS
Members UNIJOS chapter, yesterday,
voted overwhelmingly for the strike to
continue.
After receiving briefings on what
transpired at last week's meeting of the
union's representatives with President
Goodluck Jonathan and after going
through copies of the resolution of the
meeting, 194 members voted for the
strike to continue while 80 voted for a
suspension.
Sources told Vanguard that after hours
of debate by those for and against the
continuation of the strike, it was
obvious that majority felt that the
meeting with the president did not
achieve much.
Those who spoke in favour of the strike
to continue wondered why the strike
should be called off on the basis of
pleas and verbal promises by the
president, when the government is
allegedly reputed for not to honoring
agreements.
They were said to have argued that the
suffering by students and members in
the last four months would be a waste if
something concrete did not come out of
the strike to improve the situation in
universities.
It was further gathered that those for
the suspension of the strike spoke
passionately on the need to consider
the impact of the strike on students and
the gesture from President Jonathan,
who met personally with ASUU leaders
and pleaded with them to suspend the
strike.
A few of them were quoted as saying it
was better to suspend the strike and
find other ways of pursuing their
demands so as not to lose the support
of the people.
It was learnt that the Branch ASUU
Chairman, Dr. David Jangkham, after
announcing the result of the voting,
said it would be taken to the national
body which would collate the
referendum on the issue from various
chapters to come up with a position on
whether the strike would be suspended
or sustained.
A member, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, expressed fears that the
referenda in other branches might
follow the same trend "if the briefing
we got here is what they got."
UNILAG
A source at University of Lagos, UNILAG,
chapter, told Vanguard that the debate
at its congress was on whether to end
or suspend the strike.
He said: "We eventually moved to
suspend the strike and end it only when
the President pumps in the first N220
billion into the universities in January
2014.
"Although this is not totally in line with
the 2009 agreement, we feel that we
can suspend the strike out of respect
for the President. We just want to give
him the benefit of doubt, and hope that
he fulfills his promise."
LASU
At Lagos State University, LASU, one of
the executive members of ASUU, who
spoke to Vanguard on condition of
anonymity, affirmed that though the
chapter was not averse to the proposal
of President Jonathan, but the
consensus at its congress was that
ASUU should not just be a monitoring
body when the fund is finally injected.
He said: "After our congress, which
lasted several hours, it was the resolve
of our chapter that the strike should not
be called off, because we are
uncomfortable with the fact that the
Federal Government has said that ASUU
will just be a monitoring officer, while
the Minister of Education will be the
implementation officer.
"We argued that we must be part and
parcel of how the funds are managed
and what they have earmarked for
within the period of five years.
"How can we know if the Ministry of
Education and other authorities are
prudently spending the funds for the
proposed projects if ASUU is not part of
the management committee? So, our
position is that the strike should not be
called off."
LASU's internal issues
The source added that LASU chapter of
ASUU may embark on its local action,
after the national strike is suspended or
called off if the university's Governing
Council and the State Government fail
to adequately address some of its local
issues, which border on members'
welfare and a reduction in the
institution's tuition fees.
He said: "It is our resolve at the
congress that if the state government
and the university's Governing Council,
which is meeting on Wednesday, fail to
address our local issues adequately, we
shall embark on local actions.
"The university management has
wasted four months without addressing
our local issues, which border on the
casualisation of our academic staff, the
steep increment in tuition fees paid by
students and the non-implementation
of the Universities Miscellaneous
Provisions Act, 2012, which allows
academic staff on professorial cadre to
retire at 70 years against the former 65
years."
At UI
At the University of Ibadan, Vanguard
gathered that members asked their
leadership to commit the President to
signing the resolution of FG/ASUU
meeting held last week and include
non-victimisation clause.
The Chairman, ASUU, University of
Ibadan, Dr. Segun Ajiboye, said that the
union had set up project monitoring
committee to ensure that funds
released by government was not
misappropriated.
Ajiboye maintained that it was not how
quick the strike ends but how well it
ends, adding that the goal of the strike
must be actualised.
According to him, it was regrettable
that it took the Federal Government
four months to think education was an
important sector, adding that no
country in the world plays with
education the way Nigerian leaders do.
David-West
Also, former Minister of Petroleum,
Professor Tam David-West said,
yesterday, that ASUU would continue to
go on strike as long as injustice
remained in the system.
He said this at the UI-ASUU congress,
where he vowed to always support all
the struggles that would lead to the
rejuvenation of the education sector.
Source: vanguard
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