Skip to main content

(ASUU) - A plot by Government to allow their private Universities to thrive

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused agents of the Federal Government of executing a well-planned plot to decimate the Nigerian public university system to allow their privately owned ones to thrive.

The union, however, said it would not fold its hands and allow such a plot to succeed.

It insisted that if strike remained the only language understood by the government, it would continue to speak it.

The Port Harcourt zone of ASUU, in a position paper read by its Zonal Coordinator, Stanley Ogoun, at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education on Tuesday, identified persons and institutions frustrating their efforts for peaceful resolution of the issues.

Ogoun said the agents of the ministries of finance, the Office of the Accountant-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and particularly the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sunny Echono, were obstacles to resolving the problems.

He further said the Minister of Labour and Productivity, who took on the role of a conciliator, had failed, lamenting that even the intervention of the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari had yielded no results.

He appealed to members of the public to disregard claims by the government that it had paid ASUU N50billion in Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) Revitalisation Funds.

Insisting that the money had not been paid, Ogoun said the arrears of EAA up to 2019, which the government promised to pay that led to the suspension of ASUU’s last strike had remained unpaid.

He said the signing of the 2009 renegotiated agreement; the adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and the urgent need to amend the Act establishing the National Universities Commission (NUC) remained the burning issues.

Ogoun said amending the Act would tame state governors from indiscriminately establishing new universities while abandoning the existing ones.

He said: “You should be aware of the deliberate and well-planned efforts to decimate the Nigerian public university system so that private ones can thrive.

Why are they afraid of competition. Let both exist side-by-side and let us see what becomes of such private-sector holdings in the educational sector.

“They are welcome development but public individuals, who intend to float such educational outfit must not use their positions in government to drive the death of publicly owned institutions to pave way for their private endeavours.

“Sadly, the public schools at the primary and post-primary levels have become comatose. Our universities must not be deliberately driven along the same dead-end for theirs to thrive.

“We will continue to resist all attempts at pricing university education out of the reach of the ordinary Nigerian via a tuition regime as the Ondo State test case”.

ASUU’s chairmen present at the gathering were, Uzoma Chima, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT); Tonbara Kingdom, Niger Delta University (NDU); Emmanuel Ekwulo, Rivers State University (RSU); Joseph Endurance, Ignatus Ajuru University of Education (IAUE); Socrates Ebo, Federal University, Otuoke (FUO) and Donny Sigah, University of Africa, Toru-Orua.

Culled: The Nation 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

THE SARKIN BAI AND KINGMAKER MUKTAR ADNAN, IS DEAD.

Kano Emirate’s longest  serving kingmaker and former district head of Dambatta, Mukhtar Adnan, has died.

Video Update - Bianca Ojukwu And Willie Obiano's Wife Saga

The Internet is buzzing, there is a media uproar, the media outlets are now giving a clearer version of what happened between the former beauty queen and wife to the late warlord, Bianca Ojukwu and the wife of the former Governor of Anambra State Ebelechukwu Willie Obiano. Fresh stories indicate that Bianca Ojukwu initiated the slap. She slapped Willie Obiano's wife and it is not the other way round as earlier reported. The moment Bianca slapped Obiano’s wife during Soludo’s inauguration happened thus. The scuffle occurred on Thursday at the inauguration of Chukwuma Soludo as governor of the state. Soludo was sworn in at the government house in Anambra. Dignitaries, including Obiano, were already seated when Ebelechukwu Obiano, Willie Obiano's wife stood up from her seat and moved to where Bianca, widow of Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, was seated and spoke to her. Although Ebelechukwu was inaudible, the video showed how Bianca rose and gave her a slap, leading to a commotion. Whichever w...

VIDEO: Apostle Johnson Suleiman Speaks On The Assassination Attempt On His Life By Gunmen

The founder of Omega Fire Ministries, Johnson Suleman, has broken his silence after surviving an attack on his convoy by gunmen. The sad event took place in Auchi, Edo State on Friday, October 21, he said the shooting left seven people dead.  Watch the video; Extracts from his speech below; "I just escaped an assassination attempt where seven people were killed. They opened fire on my car. My wife and my kids were there. The escort car with police, they killed the policemen. They killed the other people in the escort car, the bus, that were with us. They killed seven people. People who did this are expecting me to come out and mention their names, so they can come out and deny it but I won't do that. The truth of the matter is, you can't kill me, my life is in the hand of God, I'm a man of God."he said.