Education

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Despite mounting pressure on the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off its ongoing strike, members insist that there is no going back unless the federal government budges

|  By Anayo Ezugwu  |  Aug. 5, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT

THE prolonged industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, which has crippled academic activities in the nation’s universities, has continued to elicit adverse reactions in the country. Students have expressed displeasure over the strike and criticised the union for insensitivity to their plights, especially those who are in their final year. Ajayi Babatunde, a 600-level student of the Lagos State University College of Medicine, said his hopes of graduating early next year has again been dashed. According to him, the programme he started in 2007 and originally scheduled to end this August had been rescheduled to April 2014, due to incessant strikes either by association of doctors or ASUU.

He said the ongoing strike has again confirmed the uncertainty of the April date because a single day missed would definitely be repeated. “It is sad that once again, we are witnessing another unsolicited break. Just last year, we had eight months of strike by the Medical Guild which affected our clinical classes. Now, we don’t know when this ASUU strike will end. Even the clinical postings we are attending now is a waste of time because whenever ASUU calls off the strike, we will still repeat them,” he said.

A final year student of the University of Benin, has pleaded with ASUU and the federal government to resolve their differences so that the students would go back to school. , “I am tired of staying at home. Before the strike, I submitted my completed project to my supervisor for vetting. For almost a month now, he hardly creates time for me. Now, the strike is here, who knows when they will suspend it. Government and ASUU should consider what we are passing through and resolve this dispute,” she said.

The circumstances painted above may have informed the animosity of the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian University Students, NANUS, against their lecturers, who they accused of not carrying them along before declaring the strike. Peter Asuquo, president, NANUS, said ASUU did not consult with the students before embarking on the strike. “We are sad that ASUU has unilaterally decided to embark on yet another needless strike to drive home a point against the federal government. Our grievance is anchored on the fact that the ongoing ASUU strike has exerted an even greater negative pressure on the students more than any other stakeholder in the impasse. It is our belief that other avenues could be explored by ASUU other than a strike to make its point to the federal government. It is therefore our demand that the strike be called off forthwith,” he said.

Meanwhile, Festus Iyayi, former national president of ASUU, said the purpose of the union’s strike is to compel the federal government to implement the agreement it reached with ASUU on funding of universities. He pointed out that the union members were prepared to stay at home for the next three to five years until the right thing was done. “Government believes that Nigeria should continue to be not just a second rate country but a third rate country because the quality of  development, the kind of society you have depends on the kind of education that the people have and the quality of education that exists in the country.

“In 2009, ASUU reached an agreement with the government on how to rehabilitate and revitalise the universities. That agreement was a product of three years of negotiation, from 2006 to 2009, and government agreed that it will provide funding for universities to bring them to a level that we can begin to produce graduates that will be recognised worldwide, and our universities can also be classified and rated among the best in the world. People keep talking about universities rating, but no Nigerian university features among the first 1,000 in the world because of the issue of lack of facilities,” he said.

Sola Olorunyomi, national convener, ASUU committee on human rights, said ASUU’s leaders, who met with representatives of the federal government, were shocked when the government feigned ignorance of the strike and its agreement. “We are resolute this time. We are prepared to go hungry. You can’t believe that the people we met first feigned ignorance of the agreement. It was not until our team brought out the memorandum of agreement and then some of them saw their signatures. It was a drama of sorts. But you can only have that in Nigeria,” he said.

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