Despite its ongoing strike, Striking Lecturers under the aegis of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have agreed to participate in the forthcoming general election.
ASUU president, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi who made this commitment on Friday in Abuja while briefing newsmen, stressed that the union would not stand in the way of the elections, assuring they would continue to work with INEC to deepen the content and processes of elections in Nigeria.
Prof Ogunyemi who traced the relationship between INEC and ASUU from 2010 when Prof Attahiru Jega was the chairman, said even though the universities were not in session, they had continued to do other community services such as research.
He assured that participating in the elections would be part of the community services the academic staff union undertakes in the country.
“We had a good meeting; it is based on record that our relationship with INEC dated back to 2010 when Prof Attahiru Jega was the chairman. We started collaborating then. Even though we are not in session now, we have assured them that we will not stand on the way of our members participating as ad-hoc staff .
“The position of our members the last time we met was that our members will participate in the electoral process as ad-hoc staff and we have restated that we are not going to stop any of our members who wishes to serve in that capacity .
“We have also assured them that we will continue to work with INEC in order to deepen the content and processes of elections in Nigeria. On our own part we will continue to support them with research.
“Although the strike is ongoing we have not stopped conducting research. We cannot stop our community services, so participating in election is part of our community services.”
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NEC led by the Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu had on Friday met with the leadership of ASUU at its national headquarters in Abuja and entered for brief closed door meeting.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu had appealed to union to allow its members to function as ad-hoc staff in the forthcoming polls despite the ongoing strike.
Since 2010, the commission has been drawing such personnel from the pool of young graduates of our tertiary institutions involved in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme as presiding officers at the polling unit level. However, the number is not always enough given the size of the country.
“Consequently, the commission engages students of the federal tertiary institutions as assistant presiding officers. As the process progresses to collation and declaration stage, the commission draws from the academic staff of tertiary institutions, mainly the federal Universities, as collation and returning officers.
“While we pray that your ongoing industrial action is resolved speedily , the commission would like to appeal to ASUU to consider election as an essential service to the nation and maintain the collaborative relationship that would enable your members to play critical roles in the electoral process.
The INEC boss stated that within the time available to the elections, it would be difficult to identify, recruit and train thousands of alternative collation and returning officers needed for election.”
He appealed to ASUU to continue with the existing collaboration with INEC and allow its members to participate as collation and returning officers for the 2019 general elections.
