Search Blog / Web

Custom Search

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

National Mirror: ASUU strike paralyses varsities

Changes are afoot at Blogtrottr!
By popular request, we're bringing in paid plans with some cool new features (and more on the way). You can read all about it in our blog post.
National Mirror
All the Facts | All the Sides
ASUU strike paralyses varsities
Jul 2nd 2013, 23:02, by TUNBOSUN OGUNDARE, KEMI OLAITAN AND MOJEED ALABI

. We've made offer to lecturers –Minister

Two days into the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, academic activities have been grounded in the government- owned universities across the country.

At the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, yesterday, lecturers abandoned classes to honour the directive.

Classes were empty and most of the students stayed indoors in their hostels while some were roaming the campus. Up till Monday, the students received lectures, hoping to write their semester exam in August.

Some of them told National Mirror that they still remained in school because they were not sure if the government would meet the lecturers' demand and pleaded that they should call off the strike.

Expressing sadness over the strike, they, however, blamed the government for not honouring the fouryear old agreement with ASUU.

The government action, the students said, indicated the insincerity of the country's political leaders. Also activities at the Lagos State University, Ojo, have been halted as a result of the strike. Students clustered around in groups, discussing the development when National Mirror visited the campus yesterday.

They were unhappy about the strike and blamed it on the government, which failed to honour what they called 'simple agreement' with ASUU.

A 600-level student of Medicine at the university and President of the Medical Students Association, Mr. Ajayi Babatunde was devastated by the development, saying he was tired of being addressed as student.

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where first semester exam is currently holding continued with the exam after the decision by its lecturers to join their counterparts in the strike later.

Academic activities were also paralysed at the University of Ibadan, as students who went for early morning lectures were stunned when none of their lecturers showed up.

Although all lecture rooms were open, they were empty as students left the classes and retired to their halls.

A visit to the institution showed that the strike was total as the lecturers only came to their offices but shunned lecture rooms while students who were seen patrolling their supervisors' offices were reportedly instructed to wait until the end of the strike.

Some of the students were seen playing football and basketball within the campus while those in their final year lamented the strike.

The students appealed to the Federal Government to address the demands of the union and save the country from anarchy.

The National Treasurer of ASUU, Dr. Ademola Aremu, while speaking with journalists, said the strike order was fully complied with at the institution.

He stated that the university community had been carried along in the efforts to rescue the education sector from the current disastrous situation in which it is mired.

Aremu maintained that there was no need for the union to go on warning strike and a total and indefinite strike was only suspended to allow the government to implement the agreements it had with the union in 2009.

The UI branch Secretary of ASUU, Dr. Ayodeji Omole, lamented the unfortunate strike, saying: "We thought with a President like Jonathan, education will be better off, but we are worse off."

A letter signed by Omole sent to the Vice- Chancellor on the strike reads in part: "In view of the unsatisfactory state of the implementation of the 2009 agreement, the National Executive Committee of Academic staff Union of Universities, ASUU-NEC, after exhaustive deliberations, NEC asked various branches to resume the suspended indefinite strike from July 1, 2013.

"You are hereby duly informed that all our members in the University of Ibadan have, effective from today, July 1, 2013 complied accordingly and withdrawn from all academic activities, including teaching, supervision and all statutory and ad hoc meetings."

In another bulletin distributed to all academic staff of the universities, the lecturers were instructed: "Do not teach any course whatsoever, do not attend any statutory meeting, do not establish or supervise any examination at any level, do not engage in supervision of projects at any level, do not force any academic to teach, supervise theses and projects at any level or attend meetings of departments, faculties, senate congregation, councils during the strike."

The leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has however pledged to carry out a comprehensive review of the ongoing strike and intervene appropriately to ensure smooth academic activities.

The students' leaders stated that the position of the association would be made known soon. The President, Yinka Gbadebo, said efforts were ongoing to bring the stakeholders within the association together to review the situation and present a common position. He said the state of education in the country, saying the students were usually at the receiving end.

The Chairman, Parents/ Teachers Association of Nigeria, South West Zone, Deacon Olusoji Adams, blamed the Federal Government for the strike, saying it was unacceptable for government not to have fulfilled agreement voluntarily entered into with the striking lecturers.

He argued that government had the resources to honour the agreement but it was disheartening that it could still not respect a fouryear old agreement. Adams said the action was a demonstration of dishonesty on part of political leaders in the country.

However, the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqqayatu Rufai said the Federal Government has made an offer to ASUU but was yet to receive any response from the union. The minister, who was answering questions from newsmen in Abuja, did not give any hint on the details of the offer made by the government to the union, but maintained that government was still expecting ASUU's response.

"They are our colleagues, we meet with them, we discussed with them. There is an offer from government. We expected to hear from them and up till now we are expecting to hear from them," she said.

Also commenting on the issue, the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, said that ASUU was supposed to write to the government in respect of the offer made to them during a meeting held between them about three weeks ago.

Okojie said that ASUU had informed representatives of the Federal Government that it would get its response after its National Executive Meeting, NEC. "We have no official report from them.

They should write to us. We have been meeting regularly. We even met on Sunday. "About three weeks ago, there was an offer made to them by the government.

They said that they were going to their NEC, what we expected from them is that they should have come to us and told us what was the result.

"As far as I am concerned, if they are on strike we don't know. They should write to us."

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com.

If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...