The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said the federal government has not initiated any dialogue with the union despite that fact that two-thirds of universities across the country have joined the industrial action.
President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, who stated this, added that the union was not surprised by the government’s attitude, going by the experiences of the 2009 and 2013 agreements.
“We have our structure for compliance and monitoring of the strike. As we speak, our members have withdrawn from lecture halls in more than two-thirds of universities. Others declared on Thursday because we gave them two days to hold their congresses and to debrief them. That was why the strike didn’t start simultaneously.
“We are not surprised that no dialogue has come up yet between us and the government. In all our engagements with the government, except in 2017, we have always passed through stages. The first stage is that the government will ignore us. Secondly, they will say we are telling lies. But when the lies are no longer hidden and truth is out, they will say we should come for a meaningful dialogue,” Ogunyemi said.
The Ministry of Education and that of Labour and Employment are yet to make an official comment on the ASUU strike which has entered the seventh day.
Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, had, in a briefing within the week, urged the union to exercise restraint in their demands from the government.
The minister said the demands of the union dated back to 2009 during the administration of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, when Nigeria was experiencing oil boom.
Adamu noted that the government would improve funding on education sector if there is an increase in oil prices in the international market and the economy improves.
The ASUU president said the union was not discouraged by internal disagreements in the University of Ilorin and the Obafemi Awolowo University.
“At the University of Ilorin, the authorities have been undermining ASUU activities since the last 20 years or so. It does not come to us as a surprise. They have not allowed the branch we recognise to function. They have been meeting a group that they know is pro-management. For us, that group is illegal; they do not operate within the framework and they are not known to the ASUU National Executive Council.
“As we speak the chairperson and secretary of ASUU, UNILORIN chapter that we recognise have been sacked for raising objections to the ways the university is being governed. But I can tell you that they are not going far. They cannot go far.”
Union accuses SSS
Meanwhile, the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, and Bauchi State University, Gadau chapters, have decried the detention of ATBU chapter Chairman, Adamu Babayo, by the State Security Services.
Vice Chairman of the association, Ibrahim Maina, condemned the action at a joint press conference in Bauchi.
Maina alleged that Babayo was detained by the SSS operatives yesterday when he was invited to the department’s headquarters in Bauchi.
He said: “The ASUU Chairman, Adamu Babayo was invited through a Short Service Message (SMS) which is not a formal way of invitation.
“On Friday he received a text message requesting him to report to the DSS office in Bauchi on Sunday. He went to the office together with some of the executives of the association.
“The DSS operatives requested other members of his entourage to leave and detained him in their office,” he said.
Maina said the action was a violation of fundamental human rights and queried the SSS to explain the reasons behind the arrest.
“Let them explain to us why he was detained. That will give us the idea of what needs to be done. If the detention is in connection with the ongoing strike; it is a nationwide strike embarked on by the universities in the country and not a peculiar or personal problem.
“What wrong have we done by pressing for our rights through the strike,” he queried.
Maina maintained that industrial action is the rights of a worker as enshrined in the civil service act, which enable workers to press home their demands.
However, an SSS official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied the allegation, insisting that Mr. Babayo was not detained but invited to answer some questions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that ASUU had last week Monday, November 5 embarked on an indefinite strike to press for implementation of the agreement reached with federal government in 2017.
