The hope that the four month old strike by
the Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, may be called off this week,
following President Goodluck Jonathan’s
intervention last week, may be dashed as
the 61 chapters of the union are divided
over the move to call off the strike.
President Jonathan held a meeting with the
leadership of ASUU last week, where he
made some offers which ASUU was expected
to take to their members for deliberation
with the hope that it will pacify them into
resuming academic activities this week.
Congresses of the 61 chapters of the union
were therefore held, yesterday, while the
National Executive Council, NEC, meeting
will hold tomorrow in one of the northern
universities.

The outcome of the union’s congresses
indicated that there was disagreement on
the need to call off the strike.
Vanguard gathered that while some ASUU
chapters were ready to suspend the strike in
the light of the President’s intervention,
others insisted that they will continue the
strike due to what they described as their
distrust for the government.
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.