FG directs varsity councils to negotiate with ASUU
National News Aug 25, 2009
'That won’t happen, say teachers'

By Emmanuel Edukugho & Olubusuyi Adenipekun
The Federal Government has asked the university councils to resume negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The Chairman, Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, Dr. Olu Alabi, said this in Abuja on Tuesday.

Members of ASUU are currently on a two-month-old strike to press demand for improved funding of universities, autonomy, better pay and an increase in the retirement age to 70.

Alabi said the negotiations appeared to have broken down but now the government had asked the councils to reopen talks with the union.

He said the development followed the realisation by the government that the councils were the real employers of the teachers.

Alabi added that some teachers were already appealing to ASUU to call off the strike before the government invoked the “no work, no pay,” policy.

He appealed to ASUU leadership to consider the welfare of the teachers on whose cause they are fighting.

Alabi further called on university alumni, holding top positions, to contribute their quota to the development of education.

However, ASUU National President, Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie, in a reaction, told Vanguard on phone that governing councils of universities cannot negotiate on behalf of the teachers.

He explained that the central negotiating framework which was employed in the negotiation was legally valid and in accordance with the principles of collective bargaining recognised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO),and Nigerian law and practice.

“So, therefore, the question of ASUU resuming negotiations directly with councils does not arise.”

He pointed out that the Federal Government had no right or power to unilaterally terminate a process of collective bargaining.

Awuzie stated that there were some forces in the government bent on frustrating the emergence of a centrally-signed agreement with ASUU. “These forces are aware that no agreement will be signed at individual council levels,” adding, “the councils do not have the financial means of implementing the funding requirements.”

According to the ASUU president, the Minister of Education, top officials at the Ministry of Education, the NUC Executive Secretary and ETF scribe have been striving hard to abrogate the negotiation, or, if that fails, “transfer them to where they will fail – to councils.”

Presidency Moves To End ASUU Strike
By Wisdom Patrick and Ekene Okoro, Lagos

Aso Rock at the weekend signaled its dissatisfaction with the way the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been handled by Education Minister, Sam Egwu.

It was learnt that President Umaru Yar 'Adua, himself a former lecturer, will now personally preside over the negotiations, so as to end the industrial action which has paralysed activities in both federal and state universities since June 22.

Lower House lawmakers have also knocked Egwu for muddling up the negotiation with the ASUU, by saying Abuja would not concede more ground to the lecturers.

Ironically, Egwu too was a lecturer, likewise Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, who Yar 'Adua had equally delegated to resolve the gridlock - without positive results.

A source in the Villa said at the weekend that Yar 'Adua has decided to personally preside over the next round of negotiations, "to ensure that this crisis is brought to an end. We must secure the future of this country, our children must return to school.

"That is the reason he would personally preside over the next scheduled meeting this week. "

The source added that Yar 'Adua is in possession of an intelligence report which shows a clash of interests between Egwu and ASUU officials.

"You cannot allow your private disagreement, or because you do not like the face of the person you are expected to discuss with to negatively affect a national issue. If that happens, you allow the country to suffer. We cannot take that. "

It was learnt that talks between ASUU members and government officials led by Egwu usually ended in shouting matches, with each group trying to claim superiority.

Egwu would allegedly whip up sentiment that he had been a university lecturer before he went into politics. ASUU members would remind him he was no better academic, which made him to quit academics in a hurry.

"Both ASUU President, Ukachukwu Awuzie and (Egwu) are familiar with each other.

"That is the reason they cannot manage the crisis, so Yar 'Adua has been fully briefed on this, and that informs his plan to take over the negotiations.

"Even the university supervising body, the National Universities Commission (NUC), has not been able to mediate because of another level of a interest clash.

"The NUC is yet to stamp its authority on the university teachers because it is trying to protect the interest of the government, rather than playing the role of an umpire. "

Nonetheless, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, has appealed to both Abuja and the ASUU to shift position in the interest of students, parents, and the country at large.

He made the plea on Sunday when he spoke at both the fifth Justice Muri Okunola Memorial Ramadan Lecture held in Ikeja and as a special guest at the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria 2009 Tafsir.

He said meaningful solution would come only when both parties are sincere in the negotiations.

Fashola urged government officials to rise up to the demand of the lecturers, and also implored ASUU members not to remain adamant.

"Both should embrace the spirit of give and take to end the suffering of the students, " he added.

He expressed fear in leaving students to roam the streets, thereby making them preys for politicians seeking to recruit thugs.

He warned the audience: "Whenever a politician seeks your permission for your child to work for him or her, I think you should consider the nature of such work carefully before accepting the offer. "

He also urged law enforcement agencies not to violate the rights of citizens, something he said his administration would not tolerate.

He traced the brutality of overzealous security officers to the military era where soldiers used horsewhips to enforce law and intimidate people.

The views of Gombe State University Vice Chancellor, Abdullahi Mahadi, also echoed complaints about the military era when he commented on the ASUU strike on July 4 in Kaduna.

He noted that strike is the only way left for lecturers to make their point, since the government has proved impervious to their plight, and experience has shown that it negotiates only when workers down tools.

"Because of the long military rule that Nigerians were subjected to, force seems to be the way out for authorities to listen to people.

"Look at politicians when they talk; they do not talk like democrats, they talk like solders, " he pointed out.

Mahadi, who was once the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, insisted that whatever anyone thinks of members of the ASUU, they have made great contributions to education.

"The state of university in the country would have been worse " but for the ASUU, he added.

Strike cannot be ruled out, in his view, as long as the government refuses to give priority to education.

"In terms of qualifications, lecturers are more qualified compared to politicians. Yet, what politicians earn every month is very high, we do not even know their salary.

"I do not think that those who go on strike take any joy in doing it. I am referring to the university teachers in particular; they are being forced to do it, and it is the polity as construed by the government that is to blame. "

Awuzie, the ASUU President, has also recalled how it had taken two and a half years for the government team, led by industrialist Gamaliel Onosode, and the ASUU to reach a fresh agreement, which the ASUU has signed but is being ignored by Abuja.

He accused the government of pushing the union to the wall and into a strike, despite the 30 months of negotiation and another six months ' wait for it to sign and implement the deal.

Awuzie recounted that the government and the ASUU negotiating teams searched for a minimum point from which the university system could reverse the brain drain and ensure a large pool of scholars who would help to reposition the country.

He maintained that Nigerian universities need urgent intervention from the government to fulfill their potential, stressing that the agreement, if implemented, could transform them into some of the best in the world, and facilitate the country becoming a leading economy in the world.

Awuzie canvassed that education should continue to be funded by the treasury because of its importance to national development.

He said the negotiating teams agreed that if Nigeria is to get where it ought to be in world education ranking, a minimum 26 per cent of annual federal and state budgets should be allocated to education.