ASUU

GBAJABIAMILA DECEIVED US TO CALL OFF STRIKE, ASUU SAYS

Published

2 years ago

December 28, 2022

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, of deception by asking the union to call off its eight-month-old strike in October with a written promise that the government would, without delay, offset in full the arrears of salaries members were owed.

President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, gave this position on Tuesday in an exclusive interview with Tribune Online when he was asked to reflect on the speaker’s intervention and then vice versa on the current situation of their issues with the Federal Government.

He said ASUU had a soft spot for the speaker and that was why the union engaged him in a discussion as a welcome intervention to resolve the stalemate between it and the Federal Government.

Asuu, FG

He said Gbajabiamila even presented a paper signed by him to ASUU leadership indicating the seriousness of the government to pay in full the eight-month salaries its members were owed and also urgently attend to some other matters and specified how to address them.

He said part of these concerns were the peculiarities in the controversial Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) and the involvement of the house committee on budget allocation, among others.

He said that based on the Speaker’s intervention then, ASUU suspended the strike with the hope that the Speaker’s words would be matched with action.

He said ASUU members praised him just as the whole world did at the period for his intervention without knowing it was all a deceit.

Osodeke emphasized that ASUU members’ collective impression of Gbajabiamila as of today is that he tricked them to go back to work and then sort out things immediately thereafter.

But here we are till today, nothing has been done over the promise and that is why the Speaker did not say anything tangible since then at least on the issues let alone ensure that his promises are carried out,” Osodeke stressed.

He said the Speaker would need to come out as he still has the opportunity to prove ASUU wrong on its impression by simply working out the implementation of his promises to the union.
Osodeke, who said ASUU members are only remaining in the classrooms in spite of the unfavourable treatment from the government as a sacrifice for the sake of students and parents as well as the country at large, equally berated the judiciary for hurriedly passing judgment on their matter with the Federal Government by asking ASUU members to go back to work and then adjourned the case till January 26.

He said a sensitive case such as the one between ASUU and Federal Government and particularly with interlocutory injunction should have been addressed in whole and given a speedy hearing and concluded without necessarily being delayed as he said it is currently.

He said the outgoing year is a very bad one for the education sector in Nigeria, noting that great damage had really been done to the sector especially in the last year and across levels by the current administration.

He described the situation as catastrophic and prayed that the next government would be courageous enough to declare a state of emergency in the sector and fix the mess that he said would take up to four or five years to clear.

Related Topics:ASUU FEMI GBAJABIAMILA UNIVERSITY NEWS

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ASUU

NLC, TUC, ASUU, Others Defy Court Order As They Begin Strike

Published

1 year ago

November 14, 2023

Pamilerin Fedpolygist

The NLC had on Monday announced the commencement of the industrial action from midnight of Monday, 13 November, in defiance to a restraining order issued by the National Industrial Court in Abuja on Friday.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and its affiliates including the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Tuesday, began a nationwide strike, in defiance to a restraining court order barring them from embarking on the industrial action.

The two major labour unions, NLC and TUC, had declared the strike, following the brutalisation of the NLC president, Joe Ajaero, in Imo State on 1 November. Mr Ajaero was attacked in Owerri, the state capital, during an NLC protest against the Imo State government over alleged maltreatment of workers in the state.

The unions on Monday directed their members to down tools across the country as from Tuesday.

This is despite the restraining order issued by the National Industrial Court, in Abuja, on Friday, stopping the labour unions from embarking on the strike. The judge, Benedict Kanyip, ordered the two major labour unions to stop their industrial action scheduled to commence 14 November.

The interim order followed an ex-parte request by the Nigerian government through the office of Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, due to the Labour unions’ threat to embark on strike.

Ignoring the court order, ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, on Monday, directed compliance with the strike declaration in a letter to ASUU zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons across the country.

“As an affiliate of NLC, all members of our union are hereby directed to join this action of NLC to protect the interest of Nigerian workers and the leadership of the union. Zonal coordinators and branch chairpersons should immediately mobilise our members to participate in the action,” ASUU President, Mr Osodeke, wrote in a letter to zonal and branch chairpersons of the union.

When PREMIUM TIMES asked Mr Osodeke if he was aware of the subsisting court order stopping the strike, he said the question should be directed to the NLC which called for the strike.

“Call the NLC, ASUU did not declare a strike, NLC declared the strike. Call NLC,” he said in a telephone interview on Tuesday morning.

But the NLC’s head of information, Benson Upah, did not respond to phone calls and messages sent to his line requesting for comments, as of the time of filing this report.

The labour unions had, on Monday, refused to acknowledge the court order while directing their members to withdraw their services as from Tuesday.

The post NLC, TUC, ASUU, Others Defy Court Order As They Begin Strike appeared first on Jomog.