PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan
has revealed that his government
may be considering introducing
new labour laws as a means of
curtailing what he calls the
excesses of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) and
other labour unions.
ASUU has been on strike for three
months now as the union and
the government are at
loggerheads over the
implementation of a 2009
agreement. ASUU is insisting the
agreement be implemented in
full but the government says that
it cannot afford the N92bn
(£360m),which full
implementation of the deal will
cost.
Several meetings to resolve the
impasse have failed and it
appears that the government is
now considering introducing
Thatcher-like legislation to break
the strike. Revealing this
yesterday during a presidential
media chat in Abuja, President
Jonathan urged striking ASUU
members to return to work in
the interest of their students and
the education sector.
He added that it was
inconceivable that lecturers in
state-owned universities would
go on strike over issues
concerning the allowances of
lecturers in federal universities.
According to the president, such
a situation would not occur if
well-guided and well-thought out
laws were in place regulating
labour union activities.
President Jonathan added: “I did
not expect the ASUU strike to last
three months. I think politics is
creeping into ASUU."
He added that his administration
has done all within its power to
meet the demands of the
university lecturers. This he said
includes setting up a technical
committee to carry out
inventories of the universities
while it has also already set aside
N100m for the provision of
infrastructure in the tertiary
institutions, which is one of
ASUU's key demands.
In addition, President Jonathan
said his government is already
using funds budgeted for other
expenses to intervene in
universities but pointed out that
the sector's problems cannot be
solved overnight. He added that
there are certain things in the
2009 agreement that are difficult
to implement, pointing out that
the payment of earned
allowances should be paid for
from the universities' internally
generated revenue.
President Jonathan added: “The
allowances ASUU is asking for
should normally be paid from
their internally generated
revenue, as we are only assisting.
ASUU should work with my
government to improve
education."
He also queried the participation
of state owned universities in the
ongoing strike, arguing that it is
against the principle of
federalism. President Jonathan
maintained that in a federal
system where states are semi-
autonomous, the federal
government is not responsible
for their universities.
Talking on a range of other
issues, President Jonathan said
claims that the country is broke
because of the shortfall in the
amount of revenue available to
share among the three tiers of
government as false. He pointed
out that over 50% of the
investors in the Nigerian capital
market are foreigners and if it is
true that Nigeria is bankrupt,
such investors would have
divested from the market.
“How can anyone wake up from
a dream and say Nigeria is
bankrupt. I had the privilege of
ringing the New York Stock
Exchange bell and President
Obama said it is because the
Nigerian economy is improving,”
President Jonathan added.
On the state on insecurity in the
country, President Jonathan
lamented the early Sunday
morning massacre of over 40
students at the an agriculture
college in Yobe State. He added,
however, that the military has
been successful in confining the
terrorists to small sections of
states where they are active and
they now occasionally come out
to attack soft targets in remote
areas to embarrass the
government.
President Jonathan also said he
believes that his government is
winning the war against
corruption. He added that there
is so much talk about corruption
in the oil industry because there
are those who want to get oil
blocks, contracts and other
favours from the sector and most
of their stories are false.
www.nigerianwatch.com/news/2673-jonathan-considers-thatcherite-anti-union-laws-to-break-ASUU-strike