The Federal Government on Wednesday
appealed to parents and students of the
nation's universities to bear with it in what it
described as the unfortunate consequences of
the closure of universities, while it worked
hard to end the ongoing industrial action
embarked upon by members of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities.
Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku,
made the appeal while speaking with State
House correspondents at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja, on Wednesday.
Maku said the government had resolved to
end the crisis because of the damages
perennial strikes had inflicted on the nation's
education sector.
He said the perennial disruption of academic
calendar as a result of strikes had become a
source of worry to the government.
The minister, however, expressed the
confidence that the negotiation being currently
spearheaded by the Minister of Labour, Chief
Emeka Wogu, and the Minister of Education,
Prof. Ruqqayat Rufa'i, would soon produce the
desired result.
He said, "The Federal Government has been
far more worried than you think concerning the
strike in tertiary institutions, because of the
disruption of the school calendar. So, the
government is concerned and very worried,
and since the outset of the strike, the
government has been negotiating with ASUU
through the Ministry of Labour and
Productivity and the Ministry of Education.
"So, we are appealing to our people,
particularly parents and children of this nation
to bear with us; to show more understanding
and we pray that this type of strike will not
recur, because the public school system
suffers a lot of damage with the perennial
strikes."
Meanwhile, ASUU said on Wednesday in Ago-
Iwoye, Ogun State, that the Federal
Government was financially buoyant to fund
the implementation of the 2009 agreement
with the union.
ASUU alleged that the government had, during
this year alone, been selling crude at about
150 per cent of budget price and has since
January this year collected about N500bn in
excess of projected revenue from tax alone.
ASUU Co-ordinator in the South West, Dr.
Adesola Nasir, stated this during a news
conference in Ago-Iwoye on the five-week old
strike by university lecturers.
Nasir, who is also the Chairman of Olabisi
Onabanjo University branch of ASUU, stressed
that the Federal Government had the financial
means to honour the agreement.
He described the lingering crisis in the
Nigerian university system as a reflection of
the insensitivity of the Federal Government to
the plight of Nigerians.
The union therefore said it was embarrassing
to discover that the government had denied
the existence of any agreement with the
university lecturers.
It further stated that it was unfortunate that
the progress made so far in resolving the
lingering crisis over the non-implementation of
the 2009 agreement, failed to match the
required urgency required to arrest the decline
in the country's citadel of learning.
He said, "Our union had thought the
government would save itself the
embarrassment of being exposed as most
insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.
"At the first meeting called by government
representatives to address the aforementioned
issue, our representatives got the shocker of
all time when the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation expressed the denial of the
existence of the Memorandum of
Understanding on the annual release of
N400bn for three years as intervention fund
for public universities in the country."
From the Ibadan Zone of ASUU, five
universities on Wednesday insisted that the
ongoing strike by the union would not be
called off unless the Federal Government met
their demands.
The universities are University of Ibadan;
University of Lagos; Federal University of
Agriculture, Abeokuta; Olabisi Onabanjo
University, Ago Iwoye; Lagos State University
and Tai Solarin University of Education.
The union, at a press briefing in LASU on
Wednesday, also faulted universities that
conducted Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation
Examinations, despite the ongoing strike.
Some of the universities that have written
their Post-UTME are Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile-Ife; University of Ilorin,
University of Lagos, Lagos State University
and University of Nigeria, Nsuka, among
others.
Zonal Coordinator, Ibadan Zone of ASUU, Dr.
Adesola Nasir, explained that the union
embarked on the strike to protest against the
decline in the universities in terms of teaching,
research, facilities, including students'
accommodation.


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