No headway as ASUU battles govt over extra allowances, funding on august 31, 2013 at 3:28 am in specialreport
When the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on a national strike on July1, 2013 due to the refusal of Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement it signed with the union which had several components, including adequate funding of education sector, Nigerians feared another long winter for their children forced to return home.
Strike bylecturersin public universities has become anormal trend every two years. The nation is accustomed to disrupted academic sessionsthat at times linger on for about six months.
To have an uninterrupted academic calendar in the university system is abnormal. So the strike factor is usually built into the calendar. An academic programme scheduled for three or four years, could last for seven years.
The blame for this can rightly be placed atthe door step of the Federal Government, fond of breaching negotiated agreements reached with ASUU. There is the question of failed leadership, corruption, show of insincerity and lack of commitment to agreements; knowing that any breach would lead to shutting down of the universitiesby a frustrated union which feels government is unwilling to develop education in the country. The government is yet to understand that any refusal to honour agreement freely signed without duress tantamounts to a breach of contract, actionable in law.
Already, the public university system is in decadence in all ramifications. Most of the over 30 Federal and 36 State universities are in bad condition. Physical infrastructure for teaching and learning are grossly inadequate, dilapidated and over stretched. The laboratories and workshops are obsolete, poor furnishings, poor power and water supply, outdated equipment, crowded hostels and unhygienic living conditions.
Many of the universities don’t have video conferencing facility, onlya fraction have or use interactive white boards. Many are without public address systems in their lecture rooms, while none of the universities had fully automated library resources.
Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayattu Ahmed and ASUU President, Nasir Issa-Fagee
Apart from all these inadequacies, it has been found in a Federal Ministry of Education Report, that many of the universities are grossly understaffed, relyingmainly on part-time and visitinglecturers, with several under-qualified academic staff, lacking effective staff development programmes. Recently, the National Universities Commission (NUC) came out with adirective that all university lecturersmust possess Ph. D degrees within a given time or lose their appointments. Only about 43%of academic staff in the university system have doctorate degrees, the remaining57% don’t.
According to the report, there are 37,504lecturers in public universities, but only 28,128 (about 75%) are engaged on full time basis, the rest 25% are either part-time, visiting, on sabbatical or on contract.
Against this sordid scenario, one can understand the struggle of ASUUto reform and transform public universities to meet with the standards obtainable in other climes.
Our leadersare not readyto embark of this transformation because they are not committed to proper and adequate funding of education of which UNESCO recommended 26%of national budget. But Nigeria allocates less than 10%of her budget to education which iseven among the lowest in Africa. Yet this nation can do better.
People in government and politicians are quick to send their children to UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Ukrain, Russia, and even nearbyGhana, Togo, Benin for university education. Because of their ill-gotten wealth, they can patronise expensive private institutions, rather than increase funding to upgrade public schools at home.
Dr. Nasir Fagge, ASUUNational President, had explained that the strike was not just to reposition the education sector, particularly the university system, but to salvage our country. He said ASUU was determined to prosecute the strike to its logical conclusion, and that the implementation of the agreement was a cardinal issue thatmust be accomplished by the union as this would transform the country’s university system. Government offered apaltry N100 billion for infrastructure, and N30 billion for earned allowances, a far cry from N87 billion demanded.
On accepting the offer of N30 billion and going back to class while reaching agreement on when the next installments will be paid, Fagge rejected this, saying, “We had made that mistake before whereby only the salarycomponent of the agreement was singled out and so we can not afford to make such amistake again. Until the whole agreement is fullyimplemented, we are not going to call off this strike.”
Over N500 billion is needed for infrastructure upgrade.
President Goodluck Jonathan and other eminent Nigerians had appealed to ASUU to take the N30 billion offer by government and return to classroom.
Posted 31st August, 2013
The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday said that it would intervene in the face-off between the striking Academic Staff Unions of Universities and the Federal Government.
The NLC's move was coming amidst appeals and condemnation by other similar bodies, including the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and religious leaders, to the Federal Government and ASUU. While some Lagos clerics urged the government to end the strike, PENGASSAN condemned the Federal Government for not honouring an agreement it had earlier signed with ASUU.
But the President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke shortly after a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the NLC in Abuja on Thursday, said the congress would persuade the striking university lecturers to resume talks with the government, with a view to resolving the lingering issue.
Omar said the NLC had to take the decision to prevail on ASUU, an affiliate union of the congress, to resume negotiation with the government because of its concern about the suspension of academic activities in the nation's universities for close to two months.
The NLC president said the congress would also ensure that deliberations between ASUU and the government were fruitful.
He said, "It is a very serious issue we are having on our hands to allow lecturers to be out of the classrooms for close to two months. We are currently embarking on consultation with a view to convincing members of the union to resume negotiation with the federal government."
When the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on a national strike on July1, 2013 due to the refusal of Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement it signed with the union which had several components, including adequate funding of education sector, Nigerians feared another long winter for their children forced to return home.
Strike bylecturersin public universities has become anormal trend every two years. The nation is accustomed to disrupted academic sessionsthat at times linger on for about six months.
To have an uninterrupted academic calendar in the university system is abnormal. So the strike factor is usually built into the calendar. An academic programme scheduled for three or four years, could last for seven years.
The blame for this can rightly be placed atthe door step of the Federal Government, fond of breaching negotiated agreements reached with ASUU. There is the question of failed leadership, corruption, show of insincerity and lack of commitment to agreements; knowing that any breach would lead to shutting down of the universitiesby a frustrated union which feels government is unwilling to develop education in the country. The government is yet to understand that any refusal to honour agreement freely signed without duress tantamounts to a breach of contract, actionable in law.
Already, the public university system is in decadence in all ramifications. Most of the over 30 Federal and 36 State universities are in bad condition. Physical infrastructure for teaching and learning are grossly inadequate, dilapidated and over stretched. The laboratories and workshops are obsolete, poor furnishings, poor power and water supply, outdated equipment, crowded hostels and unhygienic living conditions.
Many of the universities don’t have video conferencing facility, onlya fraction have or use interactive white boards. Many are without public address systems in their lecture rooms, while none of the universities had fully automated library resources.
Education Minister, Prof. Ruqayattu Ahmed and ASUU President, Nasir Issa-Fagee
Apart from all these inadequacies, it has been found in a Federal Ministry of Education Report, that many of the universities are grossly understaffed, relyingmainly on part-time and visitinglecturers, with several under-qualified academic staff, lacking effective staff development programmes. Recently, the National Universities Commission (NUC) came out with adirective that all university lecturersmust possess Ph. D degrees within a given time or lose their appointments. Only about 43%of academic staff in the university system have doctorate degrees, the remaining57% don’t.
According to the report, there are 37,504lecturers in public universities, but only 28,128 (about 75%) are engaged on full time basis, the rest 25% are either part-time, visiting, on sabbatical or on contract.
Against this sordid scenario, one can understand the struggle of ASUUto reform and transform public universities to meet with the standards obtainable in other climes.
Our leadersare not readyto embark of this transformation because they are not committed to proper and adequate funding of education of which UNESCO recommended 26%of national budget. But Nigeria allocates less than 10%of her budget to education which iseven among the lowest in Africa. Yet this nation can do better.
People in government and politicians are quick to send their children to UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Ukrain, Russia, and even nearbyGhana, Togo, Benin for university education. Because of their ill-gotten wealth, they can patronise expensive private institutions, rather than increase funding to upgrade public schools at home.
Dr. Nasir Fagge, ASUUNational President, had explained that the strike was not just to reposition the education sector, particularly the university system, but to salvage our country. He said ASUU was determined to prosecute the strike to its logical conclusion, and that the implementation of the agreement was a cardinal issue thatmust be accomplished by the union as this would transform the country’s university system. Government offered apaltry N100 billion for infrastructure, and N30 billion for earned allowances, a far cry from N87 billion demanded.
On accepting the offer of N30 billion and going back to class while reaching agreement on when the next installments will be paid, Fagge rejected this, saying, “We had made that mistake before whereby only the salarycomponent of the agreement was singled out and so we can not afford to make such amistake again. Until the whole agreement is fullyimplemented, we are not going to call off this strike.”
Over N500 billion is needed for infrastructure upgrade.
President Goodluck Jonathan and other eminent Nigerians had appealed to ASUU to take the N30 billion offer by government and return to classroom.
Posted 31st August, 2013
NLC, PENGASSAN, others move to end ASUU strike.
The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday said that it would intervene in the face-off between the striking Academic Staff Unions of Universities and the Federal Government.
The NLC's move was coming amidst appeals and condemnation by other similar bodies, including the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and religious leaders, to the Federal Government and ASUU. While some Lagos clerics urged the government to end the strike, PENGASSAN condemned the Federal Government for not honouring an agreement it had earlier signed with ASUU.
But the President of the NLC, Mr. Abdulwahed Omar, who spoke shortly after a meeting of the National Executive Committee of the NLC in Abuja on Thursday, said the congress would persuade the striking university lecturers to resume talks with the government, with a view to resolving the lingering issue.
Omar said the NLC had to take the decision to prevail on ASUU, an affiliate union of the congress, to resume negotiation with the government because of its concern about the suspension of academic activities in the nation's universities for close to two months.
The NLC president said the congress would also ensure that deliberations between ASUU and the government were fruitful.
He said, "It is a very serious issue we are having on our hands to allow lecturers to be out of the classrooms for close to two months. We are currently embarking on consultation with a view to convincing members of the union to resume negotiation with the federal government."
ABUJA — Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday, rejected. the N130 billion the Federal Government disbursed into the university system, as part of efforts to persuade striking lecturers to call off the strike which began on July 2.
In a letter written to Head of National Economic Empowerment Development Strategy, NEEDs Assessment, and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswan, by President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Isa Fagge. The union insisted that based on the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement and the January 2012 Memoranda of Understanding, MoU, signed by both parties, what was due for 2012 and 2013 was N500 billion, not N100 billion.
The letter read: “We observe that the Committee is so far mentioning only N100 billion. If the implementation is to be related to the funding requirements in the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement and the Jan 2012 MoU, what is due for 2012 and 2013 is N500 billion not N100 billion. Only the provision of this sum will meet the immediate needs of the universities.
“Our Union is very apprehensive of the manner in which the sources of the initial N100 billion to be used for the stimulation of the process are shrouded in secrecy. We believe that monies that already belong to the university system should not be blocked and recycled.
“This will not only be counterproductive but will brew even deeper crises in the system. ASUU will not accept this.
“We are also concerned that a clear procedure or process for assessing the funds by the universities is yet to be defined. This concern is even more germane, given the statement of the Chairman of the Committee (during the last meeting on Monday, August 19, 2013) that the committee is taking some documents to the Due Process Office.
“We hasten to add that while due process must be followed, it is the sole responsibility of benefitting universities to respect all the provisions of the Procurement Act. The meaning of your Committee going to the Due Process Office is that it is the one that will be responsible for awarding contracts.
“We want to make it clear that this will never be acceptable to our union. We believe that monies meant to fund projects in universities should be sent to the universities, just as it is the practice with TETFund.”
The union condemned allocation of construction of 2,500 bed space hostel for N1billion, instead of 3,000 bed space for N1.2 billion.
“We are worried that instead of allocating N1.2 billion each to construct 3,000 bed space hostels to the 10 Category 1 universities, N1.0 billion for 2,500 bed space hostel to the 16 Category 2 universities, N500 million to construct 1,250 bed space hostels in the 12 Category 3 universities and N250 million each to construct 625 bed space hostels in the 13 Category 4 universities, the secretariat has changed that to constructing 1,400 bed space hostels in 25 universities at the cost of N2 billion each. We see no rationale in this.
“Expending N50 billion to construct 35,000 bed space hostels across 25 universities will be ridiculously scandalous since the same amount can be used to construct 125,000 bed space hostels across 51 universities. The standard cost of building a bed space ranges from N200,000.00 to a maximum of N400,000.00.
“This is even more worrisome, given the tangential suggestions made by the chairman that only monies for refurbishment will be sent to universities, while the rest will be handled centrally,” the union said.
The union also condemned the exclusion of 22 universities from the allocation for refurbishment of laboratories and libraries and three universities from the allocation for refurbishment of lecture theatres and lecture rooms.
According to ASUU, 24 universities are denied allocation for construction of libraries and laboratories, while two are denied allocation for construction of new lecture theatres and lecture rooms. 26 universities are denied allocation for construction of hostel.
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