The Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) rose from its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in
Calabar yesterday and said it could no longer guarantee that its members would
continue to work if Wole Babalakin, negotiating on the part of the Federal
Government, was not sacked.
Addressing journalists at the
University of Calabar, ASUU President Biodun Ogunyemi said that Babalakin had
become a stumbling block to peaceful negotiations and implementation of the
union’s demands.
Ogunyemi warned that the union
might soon embark on strike if Babalakin was not replaced.
“Our Union has had series of
negotiation meetings but it has been a fruitless exercise. The Chairman of the
Government Renegotiating Team, in the person of Dr. Wale Babalakin (SAN), has
constituted a stumbling block in the process of the renegotiation.
“He has arrogantly exhibited
“I-know-it-all” attitude and also conducted himself as a judge, instead of a
negotiator. With unwarranted arrogance, he has disregarded the cardinal
principles of collective bargaining, deliberately slowed the process and made
mockery of the core tenets of industrial democracy.
“He has arrogated to himself the
power to decide matters that should be collectively debated, analysed, and
agreed upon by the two parties. He has also consistently attempted to
substitute core constitutional provisions of Nigeria on education, including
university education, by market principles of trading in and purchasing higher
education, putting Nigerian children in debt peonage in order to acquire higher
education.
“This situation is not acceptable
to the Union. ASUU has tried through several entreaties to make him see reason
and return to the path of collective bargaining and respect for the
Constitutional provisions on Education to no avail. The Chairman of the
Government team has amply demonstrated that his major interest is to force ASUU
to accept the dependence of the education of our youth on debts whereas the
Constitution promises free education,” he said.
The national trustee of ASUU, Dr.
Dipo Fashina and a former president of NLC, Hassan Sunmonu, said the union had
been patient with the committee, but that had been overstretched, saying
“anything can happen anytime from now if our letter to the Minister of
Education was not addressed properly.”
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com