By Abubakar Y Ojima, Abuja
The President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has decried the action of the Federal Government of Nigeria through its lawsuit, explaining how Gov’t can end strike in one day.
The president of ASUU spoke in Abuja on Thursday at a National Town Hall Meeting on Tertiary Education In Nigeria tagged: ‘The Locked Gates of our Citadels – A National Emergency.’ organised by a pro-education advocacy group, “The Save Public Education Campaign Nigeria”.
The meeting aimed at engaging stakeholders on a way out of the lingering menace (ASUU strike).
Osodeke said the ongoing strike was borne out of the need to address issues of the poor state of Nigerian Universities and the welfare of its Academic staff as well as improve the quality of education for Nigerian students.
He recalled that due to several strikes in the past, the Goodluck Jonathan administration had shown commitment but the Buhari administration has been nonresponsive to the agreement since it took over government in 2015.
Revisiting some of ASUU’s demands, Osodeke listed the issues of revitalisation fund, academic earned allowances been owed lecturers for years, the proliferation of universities while existing ones suffer from funding, change of the mode of payment from Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) to University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) on reasons that the IPPIS has been an avenue for corrupt government officials and politicians to siphon money while lecturers bear the brunt.
He expressed disappointment over the lawsuit by the federal government seeking to coerce lecturers back into the classroom rather than solve the lingering issue, explaining that such action clearly shows unwillingness on the part of the government and would only worsen the present situation.
He therefore revealed panaceas that government must adopt which, in one day, could put an end to the strike action and have students back to school.
He said, “On all these issues, we have given the government a minimum that we can accept, but they have not responded on the issue of revitalisation, on the issue of earned allowance and on issues that we have all discussed.
”We negotiated and agreed that they should sign and this is very simple, not more than one day.
”On UTAS (university Transparency and Accountability Solution) and IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System), we say release the report of the test you did and let’s look at the one who came first and take it as we agreed.
”So, we have given them the minimum we want and we have to come down and they can do it in one day if there is a will.
“If the government loves this country, these children and their parents, then they should come to the table and let us resolve these issues in one day.
“Just as we did in 2014, they should come and ensure that we do that, we can even have the meeting in the open so that Nigerians will see what we are discussing.”
Earlier in her opening remark, the convener of the Save Public Education Campaign and former presidential aspirant, Mrs Vivian Bello worried that Education in Nigeria is being placed on the back bench or back burner.
She however said, “As Nigerians we don’t give up, as civic groups we have not given up to intervene to bring the quagmire to an end.”
“Today we have mothers, fathers and even students who are in the centre of the crisis. People have accused the government of not being sincere.
” She however thanked the Federal Ministry of Education for being present, adding that it is a sign that the outcome of the engagement would yield results that will put an end to the stalled education of Nigerian students.
She commended ASUU for its demonstration of forthrightness as against some of the accusations that people have levelled against them.
“They (ASUU) are feeling the pinch as much as every Nigerian.
“It behooves on both parties to do the needful; to be forthright with the discussion and the demands and be genuine to bring this to an end.
