LATEST ON ASUU STRIKE: FG deploys policemen to federal universities to force resumption


The Federal Government has directed the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to deploy policemen to all federal universities in the country in its bid to ensure resumption of academic activities in universities on or before December 4.


It was gathered that this development was disclosed at an emergency meeting the Federal Government held with all vice-chancellors of federal universities at the National Universities Commission building in Abuja on Friday. The Acting Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Julius Okojie, were also at the meeting.
Though Friday’s meeting was held behind closed door, a source at the meeting who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the press, revealed that the Federal Government directed the IG to draft policemen to federal universities to prevent members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities from disturbing some of their members that might want to resume work in line with government’s directive.

The meeting, also discussed other modalities for calling off the bluff of ASUU whose members have been on strike for over five months.

The Friday meeting began at 9am and lasted for two hours. Part of the meeting’s deliberations, also centred on how to recruit new lecturers to fill the space of ASUU members who might refuse to obey government’s directive. Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to call students back to campus on Sunday in preparation for academic activities which should start on Monday.

Wike, had on Thursday ordered lecturers to resume duties on or before December 4 or face being sacked summarily by the Federal Government.

Already Okojie had been mandated to start the process of recruiting new lecturers by placing vacancy adverts in international journals and media.

Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to open registers in their institutions where ASUU members that resume work would sign so that those who failed to resume could be sacked.

It was revealed that the Federal Government was planning to adopt the Ghanaian method where lecturers were asked to re-apply for their jobs after two years of strike.

“Not all lecturers are members of ASUU. Most professors don’t belong to the union, people think every lecturer in public university is a member of ASUU, which is not true. Government means business this time around and it is going to call off the bluff of ASUU,’’ the source explained.

Nigerian universities are currently in need of at least 30,000 lecturers because of acute shortage of lecturers in the university system..

There are also indications that the Federal Government and university lecturers may be heading for a clash as the December 4 deadline given by the Federal Government for the lecturers to return to work is also the date set aside by ASUU to bury a former President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi.

Iyayi died in a ghastly auto accident along the Abuja-Lokoja Road when the vehicle in which he was travelling had a collision with the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State on November 12, 2013.

The former ASUU chairman was on his way to Kano to attend a crucial meeting of the union which was called to deliberate on the Federal Government’s offer to the lecturers.

The Federal Government had claimed it decided to go tough on ASUU because the union made fresh demands in its letter to the government as a condition for calling off the lingering strike action.

ASUU had demanded payment of the four-month salary arrears of its members from July when the strike commenced and the release of N200bn that President Goodluck Jonathan promised to inject into the university system within the next two weeks.

The union also said the agreement reached between it and the Federal Government should be signed by the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation.

Though the President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Faggae, refused to pick his calls and also did not respond to a text message sent to him on the latest development, the Enugu State Police Command confirmed that its men had been directed to man universities to quell any protest that might result from the Federal Government’s order on lecturers to resume work on or before Wednesday.

The command told our source that police officers had also been directed to be stationed at the universities to forestall any disturbance from various groups or lecturers on Monday.

“There is no cause for alarm and we are combat ready in the event of any violence or disturbance,” the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said.

Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa Ibom State Command, Mr. Etim Dickson, confirmed that the police had been mandated to provide security for lecturers that want to resume work against molestation by their other colleagues, who may not want them to do so.

“We are not going to their houses to force them to come and teach in the universities. Even though the Federal Government has taken a stance, we are not in the military rule to molest lecturers,” he said.

But reacting to the latest development, the Chairman, ASUU, UNIBEN chapter, Emina-Monye, said ASUU members were not bothered about government’s latest strategy.

He said, “They can go ahead with that. We are not perturbed. Let them call the police; let them advertise vacant positions and see how many international scholars will want to accept what Nigerian university lecturers are taking- let them go ahead.”

Also, ASUU branch at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, said government’s directive was an attempt to waste students’ time.

The UNIUYO ASUU Chairman, Dr. Nwachukwu Anyim, said in Uyo on Friday that Nigeria was no longer in a military era and so lecturers could not be coerced by anybody to work against their wish. He said, We will see how they will come to our homes and force us to resume work.

“Only the Federal Government can tell the world what it has in mind. We have a shortfall of 60,000 lecturers in the university system. If they are advertising this one, it means they must have an idea of where they are going to put them, and they must be people who are going to work without equipment.”

However, the University of Nigeria chapter of ASUU on Friday said its members would not resume work until their demands are met.

The UNN-ASUU also described the Minister of Education, Wike, as a “tout”.

The union, however said that it won’t react officially to Wike’s order until President Goodluck Jonathan speaks.

“We have not heard from the President, so we cannot speak officially on the matter. It would be senseless to begin to react to a statement from Wike since he is a tout,” said Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, Chairman of UNN-ASUU.

Abada said that Wike’s order cannot hold and vowed that ASUU would unleash terror if the minister attempts to carry out the order.

“We stopped the late General Sani Abacha, so stopping Wike and these bloody civilians won’t be any problem to us,” Abada vowed.

Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday described the action of Wike as hasty.

The Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Chris Uyot, said in a telephone interview with one of our correspondents that Wike ought to have considered the circumstances that delayed the leadership of ASUU from getting their resolutions to the government.

Uyot said that ASUU was not able to get the resolutions of the NEC meeting to the Federal Government because of the death of Iyayi.

Reacting to the latest development, Mr Femi Falana [SAN], said President Goodluck Jonathan should call Wike to order in the interest of the education system..

.He said If Wike had familiarised himself with FG/ASUU face-off in the past two decades, even under the defunct military junta, he would have discovered that ASUU members had never been cowed to submission.

He said, “In 1992, the Ibrahim Babangida junta fired all lecturers and threatened to eject them from their official quarters. When the lecturers defied the junta a decree was promulgated which made strike by teachers a treasonable felony. ASUU also ignored the obnoxious decree and called off the bluff of the military dictators. But at the end of the day it became clear to the regime that universities could not be run like military barracks. Hence the junta swallowed its pride, withdrew its empty threats and decided to honour the Agreement which it had rejected.’’

Source: Punch Newspapers
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  1. FALANA, thank U for lecturing WIKED on "HISTORY of ASUU/FG face off" That TOUT seems to know nothing abt EDUCATION, yet Bros JONA gave him a portfolio.
    JONA! U I've completely lost faith in Ur MUMU style of LEADERSHIP.

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  2. Wike is a junk in FEC. A hooligan and opportunist what does he know about education

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  3. I think Jonathan and his gang have lost the plot, completely so.
    I have never for once seen this Jonathan government face the public on matter of policy with the force of logic but that of his role as C-in-C. It is time to be rid of him and his clueless cohort so that Nigeria can be saved.

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  4. Well said. The government has a stake, ASSU should consider the plight of the Nigerian Students, Parents and the Biz men/women who eke out their living when students are back. There is a distortion in our educational system becos of the strike action. FEC will not feel the effect as their childern and they themselves have their education outside Nigeria. The poor are feeling the effect, while all they think of every day is looting the treasury(FA and CRF). Let's go back to the drawing board, then we will see that strike action wouldn't help us at all. Assu should reconsider their stand and call of the strike, for the salvage of our educational system.

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  5. Well said. The government has a stake, ASSU should consider the plight of the Nigerian Students, Parents and the Biz men/women who eke out their living when students are back. There is a distortion in our educational system becos of the strike action. FEC will not feel the effect as their childern and they themselves have their education outside Nigeria. The poor are feeling the effect, while all they think of every day is looting the treasury(FA and CRF). Let's go back to the drawing board, then we will see that strike action wouldn't help us at all. Assu should reconsider their stand and call of the strike, for the salvage of our educational system.

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  6. Well who is asuu fighting for? There pockets or students? Because if its for students, then they should forget about the salary that they did not work for and resume school..th FG should bring a pannel that will handle university matters, pay the money to this pannel not asuu..lecturers should focus on there class room, let another sector handle provision of equipment to universities

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  7. Asuu is jst a useless body fighting 4 there own selfish needs...Am happy dat FG decided 2 wakeup and do wat dey shuld v done a longtym ago...let's see who wins...

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    Replies
    1. You are a fool with myopic thinking.... I can see why nigeria cannot progress in the next 200 years to come.

      Delete
  8. FG, to adopt Ghana methods to sack but cant adopt its funding method. It is clear GEJ cant control this country bcos he's surrounded by sycophants. Security,Power, Education NNPC, health and Aviation even PDP are out of control

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  9. Asuu is notin but a bunch of thieves, hw u be paid wen u did nt work, xo u want to eat whr u've nt labour, maybe dey've forgotten dat there's no fud 4 d lazy.
    Yeah! U said they(FG) re wasting d time of student. I cnt believe u made dat statment wen u re fiting 4 ur pocket, if d money cums out, swear wit all ur life dat u wil use d most of d money 4 d skul. Aren't we nigerians? We knw hw tins were run.
    U also said student wil nt b of standard, if new lecturers were recruited, tel me, wen u were there, re we of standard?, u fools wil jez cum to class, tell us old stories frm d internet, den start to sell a useless handouts.
    We nid u to go, i min we dnt nid u in skul again, thr re a lot of graduate willing to work, willing to give in thr very best. Now tel they finally c d oppt to work, hw wil they misuse it? They wil give d best nd d nigeria universities wil change. Just like dat of ghana, after two 2yrs of strike, they recruited new lecturers nd their edu sector changed, xame tin wil happen here... Xo fools(asuu) we dnt nid u. Go to hell! I cnt believe dat u dared d FG... Now face d real FG!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Asuu is notin but a bunch of thieves, hw u be paid wen u did nt work, xo u want to eat whr u've nt labour, maybe dey've forgotten dat there's no fud 4 d lazy.
    Yeah! U said they(FG) re wasting d time of student. I cnt believe u made dat statment wen u re fiting 4 ur pocket, if d money cums out, swear wit all ur life dat u wil use d most of d money 4 d skul. Aren't we nigerians? We knw hw tins were run.
    U also said student wil nt b of standard, if new lecturers were recruited, tel me, wen u were there, re we of standard?, u fools wil jez cum to class, tell us old stories frm d internet, den start to sell a useless handouts.
    We nid u to go, i min we dnt nid u in skul again, thr re a lot of graduate willing to work, willing to give in thr very best. Now tel they finally c d oppt to work, hw wil they misuse it? They wil give d best nd d nigeria universities wil change. Just like dat of ghana, after two 2yrs of strike, they recruited new lecturers nd their edu sector changed, xame tin wil happen here... Xo fools(asuu) we dnt nid u. Go to hell! I cnt believe dat u dared d FG... Now face d real FG!

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  11. The use of force by FG will not work. If we are in a democratic govt lets use democratic approach. Asuu too shd reconsider its stand alot of damages have been done due to the long strike

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  12. @ annons 4:27 u dont use ur brain for ones. u are a tout, u beta use ur sence of reasonin. idoit.

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  13. What Fg should do is to recruit new lecturers and lay off the old ones.

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  14. why should asuu fight for the students anyway, there is nothing bad if you fight for yourself as an individual or group of people. If jonathan and his selfish cohort are not fighting for their right why does he want to contest in 2015. abeg ASUU should fight for whatever belongs to them. useless government and spineless Nigerians that cannot stand for what they believe in. suffering and smiling people

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  15. Anybody who is not happy nor pleased with GEJ administration shold go and hug transformer pls and stop abusing the man

    ReplyDelete
  16. I wonder why some fools don't understand what is happening. How can these politicians be allowed to destroy all our sectors, including education, yet some FOOLS are blabbing out of sentiments? These WICKED politicians send their wards overseas to school and remain here to destroy our system. When you support these people to destroy our system, i bet you one day, you will complain and cry. It is better we ALL join ASUU to pressure the FG into putting our education in order. O.J

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  17. competent n unemployed people are everywhere so Jona should go ahead n sack d lectures. After all d lectures use very old resoures to lecture. Sabatican leave is for vacation now n not for resource findings. Sleeping n paying for marks n dey talk gibberish of reform. It should start with dem.

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  18. First, the govt has missed it by not taking the educational sector seriously. A ministry like that should not be headed by any 'run off the mill' politician but by a seasoned technocrat. We need to raise the bar. We cannot be adopting Ghana's mode of sacking lecturers when we are not ready to apply their funding mode

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  19. ISSUED:
    Today saturday 29th November, 2013
    TO:
    Deans, Directors, HODs, Coordinators, Unit heads

    RESUMPTION OF ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OWERRI.
    In line with the directive of the Federal Government through the supervising Minister of Education, the Federal University of technology owerri hereby announces the resumption of full academic activities for 2013/2014 academic session as follows:

    1. MONDAY, 2nd December, 2013
    Newly-admitted students for 2013/2014 academic session are to return to the University for final/physical clearance.

    2.TUESDAY, 3rd December, 2013
    Old students with outstanding examinations for the 2012/2013 2nd semester examinations / Project defence are to return for revision and preparation for Project defence.

    3. WEDNESDAY, 4th December, 2013
    All old students shall begin their registration for 2013/2014 academic session
    • All staff and students are by this announcement directed to resume full administrative and academic activities. All Deans, Directors, Heads of Departments, Coordinators, Heads of Units, etc are directed to be available to perform their various statutory functions.

    Signed:
    Prof. C.C Asiabaka
    Vice-Chancellor.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ISSUED:
    Today saturday 29th November, 2013
    TO:
    Deans, Directors, HODs, Coordinators, Unit heads

    RESUMPTION OF ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES AT FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OWERRI.
    In line with the directive of the Federal Government through the supervising Minister of Education, the Federal University of technology owerri hereby announces the resumption of full academic activities for 2013/2014 academic session as follows:

    1. MONDAY, 2nd December, 2013
    Newly-admitted students for 2013/2014 academic session are to return to the University for final/physical clearance.

    2.TUESDAY, 3rd December, 2013
    Old students with outstanding examinations for the 2012/2013 2nd semester examinations / Project defence are to return for revision and preparation for Project defence.

    3. WEDNESDAY, 4th December, 2013
    All old students shall begin their registration for 2013/2014 academic session
    • All staff and students are by this announcement directed to resume full administrative and academic activities. All Deans, Directors, Heads of Departments, Coordinators, Heads of Units, etc are directed to be available to perform their various statutory functions.

    Signed:
    Prof. C.C Asiabaka
    Vice-Chancellor.

    ReplyDelete
  21. OMG!!! Y cnt LAUTech take d same step, en??? I̶̲̥̅̊ tire º°˚˚˚°ÂºooOooº°˚˚˚°Âº

    ReplyDelete

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