ASUU Strike: Nigerian Leacturers React To The No Work No Pay FG Plan And Vow To Continue Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has ignored the FG's ‘No Work No Pay’ policy and vowed to continue the strike.

The federal government’s decision to stop paying the lecturers’ salaries was confirmed by the university lecturers after their Thursday meeting. Rising from ASUU’s zonal conference in Abuja on Thursday, the union responded to the ‘No Work No Pay’ strategy by stating that it had resorted to other welfare strategies to cope with the effects of the policy.

“The Federal Government has through the National Universities Commission, directed universities to stop the payment of our salaries effective September this year and since then our salaries have not been paid,” Clement Chup, ASUU Zonal Chairman in Abuja, said.

“Part of (our) welfare strategy, involve distributing food items, giving out soft loans and cash advances to members,” he added. The union is currently on an over three-month-old industrial action over the failure of the government to implement the 2009 agreement it reached with the lecturers.

Festus Iyayi, a former ASUU President, said that the union remains resolute in the face of the government’s latest strategy. “I can confirm that the federal government has stopped payment of the salaries of academic staff,” Prof. Iyayi, who led ASUU in 1986, told PREMIUM TIMES. “This ‘get them to capitulate by starving them’ policy has been employed by government in the past. It did not work.

Our members are ready to make whatever sacrifices are needed to make government honour agreements,” he added. The federal government’s latest move may have pulled the plug on negotiations between it and the striking lecturers.

The government toed a similar path during the 2009 ASUU strike but the lecturers stuck to their guns, with then ASUU President, Ukachukwu Awuzie, stating that “they would not allow the issue of salaries to dampen the desire of its members to seek fundamental changes in the Nigeria’s educational system.
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ASUU strike: NANS Barricades Niger Bridge For Hours

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) on Friday barricaded the Asaba axis of the Niger Bridge for more than two hours.

The action, which was jointly carried out by some university students and their polytechnic counterparts was in protest of the protracted strike by ASUU.

The aggrieved students blocked the bridge at about 1 p.m., which resulted to a traffic gridlock that stretched from the bridge to Okwe junction about five kilometres to Asaba town.

They also lamented the recent decisions of polytechnic lecturers under the auspices of ASUP to also embark on a similar strike, saying it would further cripple the education sector and send a wrong signal to the international community.

NANS National Public Relations Officer, Victor Ola-Ogun, said that the students were tired of the strike and appealed to ASUU to call it off.

He said that the students had embarked on the peaceful protest and taken it to Kano and “now they are in Zone B, that is Delta and the Anambra area of the country.’’

He said that if the lecturers refuse to call off the strike, the association would further move the protest to Zone C and D, comprising the middle Belt areas and South West of the country.

“We do not want a situation where our ladies will become prostitutes and the men armed robbers.

“We are always there to fight for the lecturers’ welfare and now that the Federal Government has decided to meet some of their demands, they should consider for our sake and go back to work,’’ Ola-Ogun said.

The students, which were drawn from different parts of the country, came in large number. They will leave Delta to their various destinations on Saturday.
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ASUU STRIKE: FG Fights Back

As the ongoing strike by Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, enters the fourth month, there are strong indications that the Federal Government has commenced the implementation of the “No Work, No Pay” rule.

It was gathered from a reliable source at the National Universities Commission, NUC, that the government has passed a directive to the various universities governing councils to stop payment of salaries of the striking lecturers.

The ASUU Zonal Chairman in Abuja, Mr Clement Chup confirmed this yesterday after a zonal conference of ASUU, University of Abuja chapter, which took place at the Gwagwalada campus to review the nationwide strike.

He said his colleagues were yet to receive their September salaries.

According to him, “we have resorted to other welfare strategies to cope with the effect of the strike, particularly to contain the various attempts by government to break the resolve of the union. The Federal Government has through the National Universities Commission, directed universities to stop the payment of our salaries effective September this year and since then our salaries have not been paid.

“Part of the welfare strategy, involved distributing food items, giving out soft loans and cash advances to members.”

He urged members of the public to ignore the rumour that the strike has been called off. He said: “Nigerians should disregard rumours making the rounds that the three months old strike has been called off”, adding that “the strike continues until the government demonstrates a positive inclination towards implementing the 2009 agreements and the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding signed by both parties.”
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FG Must End The ASUU Strike Now, By Femi Falana

       As the President of Nigeria and the Visitor to all the federal universities in Nigeria Dr Goodluck Jonathan should be worried over the prolonged industrial action of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. However, in his  media chat last Sunday the President stunned Nigerians when he did state that “President John Rawlings of Ghana shut tertiary institutions for one year and nothing happened”. Does that mean the public universities may be closed for one year?
While blaming the ASUU for engaging in politics in prosecuting the strike the President  claimed that the Federal Government could not afford the money being demanded by ASUU. As Counsel to the ASUU I do recall that Dr, Jonathan as Vice President contributed to the resolution of the strike embarked upon by the ASUU in 2009 which culminated in the signing of the  2009  FG/ASUU Agreement. At that time the ASUU was not accused of playing politics! Regrettably, the Federal Government has, for some inexplicable reasons, refused to implement the terms of the Agreement with reference to the improvement of the working conditions of academic staff and the provision of intervention fund to revamp university education in all the federal universities.
Since asuu has repeatedly embarked on strike for over two decades to draw public attention to the refusal of successive governments to fund university education in the country the the university teachers cannot be accused of plotting with disgruntled politicians to embarrass the Federal Government.  In fact, it is the Federal Government which has recently politicised  university education by establishing 12 new universities in one fell swoop. Up till now there is no law in place to back the establishment of any of those institutions.
As there is no fund to run the new universities the President Jonathan recently coordinated the extortion of over N5 billion from government contractors for the take off of the federal university at Otuoke, the President,s hometown.. The President’s mother was also reported to have donated a hostel to the Otuoke undergraduates. It is hoped that such gestures would soon be extended to  the remaining 11 universities by the President. Otherwise he stands the charge of being accused of discrimination!
Having regard to the increasing wave of official corruption in the country the official claim that the federal government is not in a position  to fund the federal universities cannot be taken seriously by Nigerians. In fact, it is public knowledge that the federal government funded corruption in the fuel importation sector to the tune of over I trillion in 2011. The huge fund did not include the $7 billion worth of crude stolen yearly by oil thieves operating on the high seas. Yet, President Jonathan has continued to insist that the allegation of official corruption in Nigeria is over exaggerated!
In the last three years the Jonathan Administration has drawn down the savings of more than $20 billion to less than $4 billion while it is piling up huge foreign loans. Through the AMCON the  sum of N5 trillion ($30 billion) was released by the CBN to bail out the banks that were run down by the agbero bourgeoisie. Two weeks ago the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed that $7 billion loan had been made available to the same set of banks.
Apart from engaging in the illegal business of changing dollars in the Federation Account to naira the CBN could not have earned $7bn from any other business. The CBN  has also set aside intervention funds for agriculture, aviation, industry, etc running into several trillions  of naira at the disposal of the pampered members of the ruling class.
From time to time, the CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi donates billions of naira to institutions and victims of terrorist attacks. The sum of N10 billion was donated to the Othmanfodio University on August 19, 2013 by the CBN Governor. Since there is equality before the law the CBN should donated N10 billion to each of the other federal universities within the next SEVEN DAYs or face a legal action.
in view of the foregoing it is submitted that given the political will the federal government cannot complain of inadequate funds for revamping the universities. The Minister of Finance and the coordinator of the country’s economy, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has made President Jonathan to believe that the economy would collapse if the federal government implements the 2009 FG/ASUU Agreement.
Did Mrs Okonjo-Iweala and Mr. Sanusi not say that the economy would collapse if the illegal price of N141 per litre of petrol was not sustained? When the Nigerian people forced the federal government to reduce the price to N97 did both voodoo economists resign like their counterparts would have done in the Brettonwood institutions?
Since those who are destroying the Nigerian economy have not deemed it honourable to call it quits President Jonathan should pluck up the courage to sack them without any further delay.  The impression should not be created that the Asuu strike has been allowed to drag on because top government officials have their children and wards in private schools at home and abroad.
The plan to invite former President  Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene in the crisis should be discarded. There was a time the universities were shut down for 6 months under President Obasanjo. Instead of providing funds to run the universities President Obasanjo and his Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar illegally awarded licences to themselves to  establish “private” universities and proceeded to fund them with public money looted from the Petroleum Trust Development Fund.
The federal government should urgently reorder its priority and provide adequate funds to restore the lost glory of our universities  to enable asuu to call off the strike.
Mr. Falana, a member of the senior Bar, is a legal adviser to ASUU

ASUU Strike 'Celebrates' 100 Days: Parents, Students, Stakeholders Complain

The strike action embarked upon by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has entered its 100th day.

Millions of students, including those undertaking postgraduate programmes have been idling away at home for one hundred days.

The failure of the Federal Government to fulfil resolutions reached with ASUU in 2009 and non-payment of accumulated earned allowances owed the university lecturers are yet to be addressed.

The face-off took a turn for the worse with members of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) threatening to join the strike by shutting down primary and secondary schools in the country in solidarity with ASUU.

However, President Goodluck Jonathan, during a recent media chat, said that the lingering strike has political undertone.

Thousands of concerned parents bemoaned the length of the strike and the negative effect it has had on students.

Among the affected students, LEADERSHIP discovered that there was a general air of gloom and anger directed towards the Federal Government and ASUU. The students express their disappointment that their suffering was not considered at all.

“This has been 100 days of absolute shame. It is perhaps the highest mark of irresponsibility that the said leaders of tomorrow would be allowed to waste away like this while our counterparts in other countries and private universities leave us in the dust,” a fresh graduate awaiting NYSC mobilisation said.

The ongoing strike affected business owners as well. LEADERSHIP caught up with some traders in Gwagwalada, Abuja, and it’s a collective tale of woe and worry. Their losses have consistently piled up since the strike commenced three months ago and many of them have been forced to find alternative means of making ends meet. 

ASUU: FG Faults VCs over N35b Un-accessed Funds

As the nation’s tertiary education remains grounded, the Federal Government has blamed the university management for not accessing over N35 billion due to them from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).

Speaking at a meeting with pro-chancellors/vice chancellors of federal and state universities on October 8, 2013, Tuesday, in Abuja, the supervising minister of education, Barr. Nyesom Wike, said as at June ending, about N73.87 billion which should be disbursed to universities is still lying idle due to one reason or the other.

Wike disclosed that, out of the said amount, N35b representing 47 per cent is due to varsities. Funds un-accessed by polytechnics are estimated at N16b (21 per cent) while colleges of education has N12b (16 per cent) yet to be accessed.

The minister wondered why the institutions would cry that they lack adequate funding while there are released funds by TETFund running into billions of naira still waiting to be accessed.

Meanwhile, the Committee of Vice-chancellors have blamed the federal government for the inability to utilise the interventions, arguing that there are various difficult conditions attached to the disbursements which prevented them from accessing the funds.

Wike disclosed that about 21 were yet to utilise their interventions. These include the universities of Benin, N1.6b; Ibadan, N2.7b; Ahmadu Bello University, N2.2b; Maiduguri N1.1 billion, UNN N2.8b, Tafawa Balewa N2b, Bayero University Kano N2.3b, Federal University of Technology Owerri N1.6b, Jos N3b, Port Harcourt N3b, Obafemi Awolowo N2b, Niger Delta University N2.2b.

Others include: Usman dan Fodio University N2.8b, Anambra State University N4.1b, University of Markurdi N2.3b, Federal University of Technology Yola N2.8b, Kebbi State University N2.8b, University of Lagos N4.3b, University of Calabar N4.3b and Nigeria Defence Academy N472m.

The minister said the institutions who defaulted in accessing their funds must give satisfactory answers or necessary sanctions await them.

Earlier, the board chairman of TETFund, Dr. Musa Babayo, explained that funds can only be released to the varsities when they meet all the conditions. 
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Message from ASUU President "Dr, Nasir Isa Fagge"

Dear Comrades, As the struggle to save Nigerian University system is being pursued, I'll like to salute all our members for their resoluteness in ensuring that the 2009 ASUU/Government Agreement is implemented in accordance with the Roadmap defined by the 2012 MoU. We believe very strongly that the rot and decay in the University System is not only arrestable but also reversible. We believe even more strongly that, the key to turning round the University System lies in the sincere implementation of the Agreement.

What government has so far been doing is no more than a repeat performance of a one-act-play: all the deceptions, propaganda, lies, mischiefs and such other Shenanigans were tried by previous Governments, including Military Juntas, but our resolve to save the University System and our Country remained unwaivered. We will continue to carry the banner of this struggle to its logical conclusion. I urge all our members to maintain the spirit of camaraderie and remain firmly resolute in ensuring that our patriotic struggle succeeds. United we Bargain, Divided we Beg!