The Federal Government said at the weekend that its decision to sack the striking lecturers was informed by the stance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to get its demand in one fell swoop.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on
Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told reporters
in Abuja that it was wrong “for a party to a
dispute to come to the table with an “all or
none” mentality”.
Okupe regretted that ASUU leadership has
remained recalcitrant, despite President
Goodluck Jonathan’s strenous commitment to
the resolution of the crisis which he said
informed his involvement in the last meeting
with the striking lecturers, even as the
opposition All Progressives Congress (APC)
slammed the government for threatening the
lecturers with sack.
“In our present case, coming to negotiations
as ASUU has done with this mindset, betrays a
lack of understanding on the part of the
body’s leadership that the nation and the
government are a continuum.
“Having said that, Nigerians expected that the
direct involvement of President Goodluck
Jonathan who sat for 13 hours in the meeting
was the high mark of the crisis, which ought
to have provided the final resolution to the
crisis.
“The meeting with President Jonathan ended
with a definite agreement and resolutions
acceptable to the ASUU leadership.
“The leadership of ASUU was expected to
consult with its members nationwide and
report back to government within one week,
and call off the strike, all other things being
equal.
“The ASUU leadership rather than take its
responsibility seriously, wasted seven days
before scheduling a meeting. When the
meeting eventually held the leadership decided
to thwart and undemocratically override the
expressed will of majority of its chapters to
call off the strike. This action is contrary to
established practice and procedure of any
democratic labour institution, which ASUU is
expected to be.
“The ASUU leadership refused to accede to the
wishes of 42 of its 61 chapters nationwide,
who voted in favour of the agreement with the
President and the calling off of the strike; but
in a surprise volte face presented government
again with a new set of demands and
considerations outside the terms agreed at the
presidential intervention.
“This is why we make bold to state that there
is absolutely nothing dictatorial, draconian or
undemocratic in the order by the Federal
Government for striking lecturers to return to
work or face dismissal. You may wish to
recall that on August 5, 1981, Ronald Reagan
then American President, sacked 11, 345 Air
Traffic Controllers after a two-day . Reagan
took the decision after the striking workers
turned down an 11 per cent wage increase he
had offered them. Here in Nigeria, our labour
laws contain sufficient provisions that give the
right to hire and fire to the employer.

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