The All Progressives Congress and the Academic
Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday
accused the Federal Government of
“insincerity” in the way it was handling the
industrial action embarked upon by public
university teachers.
This accusation came as the National
Association of Nigerian Students asked ASUU
members to return to class or drag the Federal
Government to court in order to resolve the
imbroglio.
Lecturers in the nation’s public universities
had started an industrial action since July 1 to
protest against the non-payment of their
earned allowances and non-implementation of
an agreement they signed with Federal
Government in 2009.
The APC, in a statement by its Interim National
Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed,
noted that the Federal Government’s handling
of the crisis had been “insincere and
amateurish”.
According to the party, the government
handling of crisis shows that it does not place
premium on education.
The Goodluck Jonathan administration, the APC
alleged, engaged in extravagance by sponsoring
the Peoples Democratic Party convention and
the First Lady’s rally for women in Abuja even
when the nation’s universities had been shut.
The APC added, ‘’It is particularly shocking that
the government has carried on as if everything
is normal without bothering about the fate of
the students who have been marooned at
home since the strike started.
“Perhaps, this is because the children and
wards of those at the helm of affairs are
luxuriating in schools abroad, or because they
are too comfortable to worry about their less-
fortunate compatriots.”
Meanwhile, ASUU members in Ibadan zone
have refuted the Federal Government’s claim
that it released N130bn to the nation’s public
universities.
They spoke through their zonal coordinator,
Dr. Nassir Adesola, during a meeting at the
University of Ibadan.
The zone has its members drawn from the UI,
Lagos State University, Federal University of
Agriculture, Abeokuta, University of Lagos,
Olabisi Onabanjo University and Tai Solarin
University.
Adesola said, “Rather than for the government
to source for the intervention funds from
other agencies outside TETFUND, it has decided
to hijack the resources of the agency and use
it as intervention fund. This attitude of the
government is fraudulent.
“We are convinced that our nation has the
resources needed to train our children. Nigeria
must be free but Nigerians must be ready to
struggle for freedom. If the government loves
our children and the country, they would
hasten to implement this intervention. But the
government has being brandishing the release
of N100bn for the funding of 59 universities
and a number of other educational
establishments such as the National
Mathematical Centre, Nigerian French
Language Village and Arabic Centre. Even the
National Universities Commission got a chunk
of the fund termed administrative cost.”
In a related development, the NANS President,
Yinka Gbadebo, has called on the striking
university teachers to return to class
immediately.
Gbadebo, who spoke at a briefing in Lagos, said
Nigerian students were no longer comfortable
with the frequency of industrial actions in the
nation’s universities.
The strikes, he said, had frustrated and ruined
the lives of many Nigerian students.
Meanwhile, the Senior Staff Association of
Nigerian Universities has said that non-
teaching members of staff of the universities
would go on strike if the Federal Government
failed to pay the August salaries of university
workers.
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