ASUU Strike: Sack Threat In Order - Presidency

The presidency declared yesterday that there was nothing dictatorial and undemocratic  about the federal government’s marching order to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call of its protracted strike action or face mass dismissal.
A senior special assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr Doyin Okupe, who made this position known at a press conference, described the striking lecturers as “the enemies of state operating from within” who are apparently playing the script of politicians in the country.
This is coming barely three days after President Jonathan described the ASUU strike in protest of the federal government’s refusal to implement an agreement reached between them as subversive rather than a trade dispute.
The president had, however, promised to consider an appeal by his former boss and erstwhile governor of Bayelsa State, Chief Diepreye Alamieyesigha, that he should review the December 4 deadline given to ASUU to call off the strike or be sacked.
But, at the press conference, Okupe maintained that there was nothing wrong with the threat to sack the striking teachers should they remain adamant on their decision to continue with the strike. “Given this dangerous and invidious tendency, no right-thinking government sworn to protect the welfare of its citizens will fold its arms and watch the situation deteriorate any further,” he said. “History has shown that when governments worldwide are pushed to the wall, they take whatever lawful steps that are necessary to protect the interests of its people and the state over which they govern.
“The negative disposition of the ASUU leadership is unarguably a pre-conceived and calculated treacherous plot pointedly intended to undermine the presidency and subvert the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
Noting that “there is absolutely nothing dictatorial, draconian or undemocratic in the order by the federal government for striking lecturers to return to work or face dismissal”, Okupe recalled that “on the 7th of May 2012, the Lagos State government sacked 788 doctors in its employment for participating in a three-day warning strike between April 11 and 13, 2012”.
He also recalled that on the August 5, 1981, “Ronald Reagan, then American president, sacked 11, 345 air traffic controllers after a two-day strike. Reagan took the decision after the striking workers turned down an 11 per cent wage increase he had offered them.”
Noting that the new demands of the ASUU leadership unwittingly question the integrity of President Jonathan, Okupe said: “From all indications therefore and other information available to government, it has become obvious that this is no longer an altruistic strike borne out of good intentions and aimed at improving the welfare of students and staff of the universities and the standard of our educational institutions.
“Rather it is an evil programme motivated by selfish political interests and motivations within the polity. These are, quoting late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, “the enemies of state operating from within”.
He observed that while “a negotiation generally on matters like this usually entails parties involved making concessions and shifting ground to arrive at amicable resolution of dispute”, it becomes a bad negotiating philosophy “for a party to a dispute to come to the table with an “all-or-none” mentality.
“In our present case, coming to negotiations as ASUU has done with this mind-set betrays a lack of understanding on the part of the body’s leadership that the nation and the government are a continuum,” he added.
He noted that since government had agreed to make available N100 billion for the provision of infrastructure on the 61 campuses reflected in the needs assessment of universities, with a further commitment of another N200 billion over the next two years, and N40 billion of the N90 billion earned allowances demanded by the lecturers, it was expected that ASUU would reconsider their stand.
“This was despite the fact that the ASUU leadership in the meeting with President Jonathan failed curiously to articulate the basis of the calculation of the demanded N90 billion earned allowance, which has been on the table since 2009,” Okupe said.
The presidential aide continued: “Having said that, Nigerians expected that the direct involvement of President Goodluck Jonathan who sat for 13 hours in the meeting was the high mark of the crisis, which ought to have provided the final resolution to the crisis. The meeting with President Jonathan ended with a definite agreement and resolutions acceptable to the ASUU leadership.
“The leadership of ASUU was expected to consult with its members nationwide and report back to government within one week, and call off the strike, all other things being equal. The ASUU leadership, rather than take its responsibility seriously, wasted seven days before scheduling a meeting. When the meeting eventually held, the leadership decided to thwart and undemocratically override the expressed will of the majority of its chapters to call off the strike.

ASUU warns parents not to release their children
The ASUU, meanwhile, has warned parents not to expose their children to the hazards of bad Nigerian roads, saying no academic activities will start until the federal government perfects the resolutions reached with the union and implements same.
 The national president of ASUU, Dr Nasir Fagge, in a text message to the University of Ibadan chapter of the union yesterday,  said it was laughable that the president denied issuing the order to sack academic staff.
 ASUU said it was the height of insensitivity for President Jonathan through his minister to ask students to return to campuses in order to force parents to waste their lean resources.
 It also asked members not to sign any register but tasked them to remain calm and stay resolute, adding that the union was on course to ensure that no staff is victimised.
 “Comrades, can you see the unfolding drama? Now Jonathan says they didn’t give ultimatum; That the vice chancellors did and Wike became their trumpet; but NUC’s ultimatum is by federal government to us to resume or get sacked,” he said.
 Similarly, the University of Ibadan chapter of ASUU through its chairma, Dr Segun Ajiboye asked parents not to risk the precious lives of “our students” by releasing them, saying no lecturer will teach them.
 “Don’t risk the lives of your children; keep your children at home because ASUU will not teach. Soldiers and the police deployed by the federal government will not teach. Mr Wike can come and teach in university. It is a huge joke to sack professors. Our strike must not be in vain. Our students must see the results. It is funny we thought we are in a democracy. I assure Nigerians that we know what the law says about the strike. Our job is statute-backed.
 “We are not threatened. We do not trust the government. The record of the government is clear. This government is dishonouring agreements. Our members are resolved to pursue this to a logical conclusion,” he stated.  “Dear members, stay calm and remain resolute. There is nothing wrong in asking government to do what it says it will do immediately. ASUU is not making any new demands as the minister is propagating. Government is only repeating a ‘one-act play’ scripted by the IBB dictatorship in the early ‘90s. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now!
 All branches are intact. We cannot be intimidated,” part of the text message read.

Return to classes, Mark urges lecturers
Senate president David Mark has reiterated his plea with the striking lecturers to reconsider their position and return to classes.
Mark also urged the federal government not to use the “sledge hammer” on ASUU on account of the lingering strike.
Senator Mark renewed the appeal when he commissioned a lecture theatre for the School of Management Sciences at the Kano State Polytechnic donated by Senator Kabiru Gaya.
Mark, in the statement issued by his chief press secretary Paul Mumeh, said: “We have reached a situation where hard-line positions would worsen the situation. My plea to ASUU is to resume classes while negotiation continues. The strike has done enough damage to our universities. They have also made their points and I think we should reason together and end this matter.
“Nobody, including the University teachers themselves, can be said to be enjoying this crisis. It is a huge cost on government, parents, the management , staff and students of the universities.  Everybody agrees that the situation is bad .
“ASUU over the years has enjoyed the sympathy of Nigerians. I am afraid if they remain adamant on this, they would lose the sympathy and support of the people.”

APC slams FG for sack threat against university lecturers
However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has slammed the federal government for issuing a sack threat against striking university teachers, saying the resort to such military-era tactics reflects the FG’s poverty of ideas in resolving the prolonged ASUU strike.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its Interim national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party in particular criticised the supervising minister of education, Mr Nyesom Wike, for the way he talked down on the striking teachers while issuing the ill-advised, go-back-to-work-or-be-sacked threat.
‘’Wike’s language was crude, his presentation was rude and his threat was demeaning and counter-productive. We believe his lack of finesse and the inability to think out of the box in handling the whole strike issue will not bode well for a quick resolution of the crisis.
‘’We also disagree with the minister’s inference that the lecturers should automatically call off the strike because the president intervened and sat for long hours with them. It is this unnecessary deification of a democratically-elected president that has almost turned this president into an emperor. What is the big deal in President Jonathan sitting with ASUU members, his former colleagues for that matter?  What is a president elected to do if not to solve problems?’’

Blame FG for prolonged strike, Falana tells Jonathan
 Lagos lawyer and human rights activist Chief Femi Falana has told President Jonathan to hold the federal government responsible for the lingering strike action by the ASUU instead of accusing the striking university teachers of subversion.
According to him, apart from inexplicably failing to honour the 2009 agreement it reached with ASUU, officials of the ministries of education and finance intentionally frustrated the resolution of the strike.
“It was on account of such frustration that led the president to take over the negotiations. At the end of the marathon meeting held between the president and the ASUU leaders a fortnight ago, substantial progress was made towards the resolution of the crisis.”
President Jonathan had, at a meeting of the Bayelsa State caucus of the PDP in Yenagoa last Friday, accused ASUU of subversion.
Falana said, “As far as the president is concerned, the ongoing industrial action has nothing to do with trade dispute. During his last media chat, the president had accused the ASUU of playing politics with the strike. No doubt, the federal government is utterly embarrassed that the strike has lasted for about six months.
“But instead of accusing ASUU of subversion, the federal government has itself to blame for its inexplicable refusal to honour the 2009 FG/ ASUU agreement”.
Falana said since no university in Nigeria has the required number of professors, readers and senior lecturers, “the threat of a mass sack of academics is a huge joke”, adding that this is even so as ASUU had accepted the offer made by the president with some minor adjustments.
“Regrettably, the president was informed that ASUU had rejected his offer. In view of such misinformation, the acting minister of education, Mr Nyeson Wike, issued a seven-day ultimatum to sack all striking university staff with effect from December 4, 2013,” he noted.
The legal luminary described government’s directive that the vice-chancellors of all public universities declare the posts of striking academics vacant with a view to replacing them as laughable. “If Mr 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 have never been cowed to submission.”