When
members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) embarked on
the lingering strike action, they made it very clear that the industrial
action was meant to salvage the education sector.
Experts and education pundits who took a cursory look at their demands from government, agreed that the demands should be granted because they are important to the development of the sector.
They felt the problem would be easily solved, given the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan is a member of the academic community and knows the importance of what they are agitating for.
As time went on, some stakeholders seemed to be divided over the genuineness of the demands with not a few of them resorting to a campaign of calumny to stampede the lecturers back to the classroom.
In the forefront of such movement against ASUU is the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) which is saying that the strike is no longer in the interest of Nigerian students.
Not even the national president of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Yinka Gbadebo is still in support of the strike, as he and some of his members have joined the government to persuade the lecturers to go back to the classroom.
The trend has become worrisome as the students who the lecturers are claiming to be fighting for are now pointing accusing fingers on their teachers.
According to the national president of the nation’s apex youth organisation, Comrade Abdulahi Abdulmajeed, the Nigerian youth are the ultimate losers in the current action and not ASUU or government.
He said, “ASUU, after it must have achieved some or all its demands will call off the strike and come back to campus with the salaries of their members intact, meanwhile, what the students lost they cannot regain.
“Afterwards, members of ASUU will settle down to enjoy their salaries while students are left to battle with the unpalatable consequences of their actions such as elongation of our academic tenure and years in school.
Our academic flow would have experienced obstruction, mourning of our dead colleagues and tending to the incapacitated ones who would have been involved in road accidents when they were left with the option of unwarranted travelling due to ASUU strike,” he stated.
He said the youth council was not in any way opposed to the demands of the university lecturers, insisting that the education sector deserved the best from the government.
“NYCN believes that the lecturers under ASUU may have a point, it is also a fact that they are fast losing credibility in the eyes of several Nigerians because in the present trade dispute, we are beginning to feel that ASUU is putting premium on personnel entitlements above the issues of sectoral repositioning and improvement of infrastructure in the educational sector going by the method they have adopted.
“The education sector in Nigeria deserves the best; we are asking for commitments on the part of the government and we are asking ASUU to be more reasonable to the plight of Nigerian youth and the wellbeing of the generality of Nigerians. We are not in any way opposed to the justifiable demands of ASUU, what we oppose is that Nigerian youth, about 30 million of them have wasted more than 100 days in their academic year,” he added.
He said the youth council had the right to protect the interest of its 17 million members, many of whom are greatly affected by the ongoing strike just as ASUU has the right to protect the interest of its members.
“Because of this constant strike, armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution have been on the rise; an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. Many of our youths are no longer employable because of the age limit many blue chip companies are setting for their employees,” he pointed out.
Abdulmajeed continued that ASUU did not have any justification to continue with the strike since negotiations could still be going on while the students were returned to classroom in pursuit of their education. He said shutting down universities in the country for over hundred days was not acceptable to the Nigerian youth.
He added, “our major concern as youth leaders is that every day the students are shut out of school, they are exposed further to the danger of ultimately not being useful to themselves and to the larger society. They are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the myriad of societal ills, which is already threatening the social fabrics of this country, vis-a-vis the menace of armed robbery, terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, prostitution and so many other acts capable of destabilizing this country.
“While ASUU remains adamant with reference to the agreement under dispute, the rot it is also nurturing by virtue of its protracted incessant strikes should also not be lost on the lecturers,” he further pointed out.
However, while some see the on-going strike as a waste, some students have taken advantage of it to engage themselves positively by learning vocational skills.
Some students of the University of Lagos who spoke to LEADERSHIP said they had commenced learning of vocational skills like tailoring, hairdressing and others in order to keep themselves busy pending the call off of the strike. Thus, a good percentage of students appear indifferent and are not accusing government of insensitivity as many are doing because they are now positively engaged.
In the face of the on-going blame game as well as the stand of the NANS president, Yinka Gbadebo on the current strike, the University of Lagos branch of ASUU, has said the protests by NANS and some women groups in Abuja were sponsored by the government to rubbish ASUU.
The chairman of ASUU UNILAG, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka said, “ASUU UNILAG thereby dissociates herself from any form of protests for or against the strike action. We thereby commend the huge population of genuine students that have made the likes of Gbadebo to remain what they are, irrelevant entities”.
The union added that its attention was drawn to the devilish and nefarious plans and activities of NANS leader and said he was rusticated from Ekiti State University in 2009.
“We are aware of his sponsors and financiers. Also, in order to be foisted on genuine Nigerian students, Mr. Gbadebo was admitted for a one year diploma programme at OAU, Ife. He ought to have concluded this programme long before the commencement of ASUU strike that was declared in July, 2013; as those with whom he was admitted have all graduated. Gbadebo is not known at OAU Ife apart from the face of news media”, it said.
Lampooning the student union leader, the ASUU chairman fumed, “apart from being a diploma-in-view student, claiming to lead a teaming population of Nigerian undergraduates’ at all tertiary levels, Gbadebo has chosen to lead his dreamed followers from the comfort of a hotel at Durumi Area 1, Abuja.
“We are aware that the so called NANS, under him has no office or address. Unfortunately, Gbadebo is enjoying unlimited access to agents of government even at very high levels. We use this medium to call on all students to reject all forms of retaliation even in the face of intimidation, assault and violence,” he added.
The union accused Gbadebo and his group of being provided the logistics and instruments for an effective disruption of public order, harmony and decorum, calling on the Lagos state Commissioner of Police to forestall any breach of public peace and order.
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Experts and education pundits who took a cursory look at their demands from government, agreed that the demands should be granted because they are important to the development of the sector.
They felt the problem would be easily solved, given the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan is a member of the academic community and knows the importance of what they are agitating for.
As time went on, some stakeholders seemed to be divided over the genuineness of the demands with not a few of them resorting to a campaign of calumny to stampede the lecturers back to the classroom.
In the forefront of such movement against ASUU is the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) which is saying that the strike is no longer in the interest of Nigerian students.
Not even the national president of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Yinka Gbadebo is still in support of the strike, as he and some of his members have joined the government to persuade the lecturers to go back to the classroom.
The trend has become worrisome as the students who the lecturers are claiming to be fighting for are now pointing accusing fingers on their teachers.
According to the national president of the nation’s apex youth organisation, Comrade Abdulahi Abdulmajeed, the Nigerian youth are the ultimate losers in the current action and not ASUU or government.
He said, “ASUU, after it must have achieved some or all its demands will call off the strike and come back to campus with the salaries of their members intact, meanwhile, what the students lost they cannot regain.
“Afterwards, members of ASUU will settle down to enjoy their salaries while students are left to battle with the unpalatable consequences of their actions such as elongation of our academic tenure and years in school.
Our academic flow would have experienced obstruction, mourning of our dead colleagues and tending to the incapacitated ones who would have been involved in road accidents when they were left with the option of unwarranted travelling due to ASUU strike,” he stated.
He said the youth council was not in any way opposed to the demands of the university lecturers, insisting that the education sector deserved the best from the government.
“NYCN believes that the lecturers under ASUU may have a point, it is also a fact that they are fast losing credibility in the eyes of several Nigerians because in the present trade dispute, we are beginning to feel that ASUU is putting premium on personnel entitlements above the issues of sectoral repositioning and improvement of infrastructure in the educational sector going by the method they have adopted.
“The education sector in Nigeria deserves the best; we are asking for commitments on the part of the government and we are asking ASUU to be more reasonable to the plight of Nigerian youth and the wellbeing of the generality of Nigerians. We are not in any way opposed to the justifiable demands of ASUU, what we oppose is that Nigerian youth, about 30 million of them have wasted more than 100 days in their academic year,” he added.
He said the youth council had the right to protect the interest of its 17 million members, many of whom are greatly affected by the ongoing strike just as ASUU has the right to protect the interest of its members.
“Because of this constant strike, armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution have been on the rise; an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. Many of our youths are no longer employable because of the age limit many blue chip companies are setting for their employees,” he pointed out.
Abdulmajeed continued that ASUU did not have any justification to continue with the strike since negotiations could still be going on while the students were returned to classroom in pursuit of their education. He said shutting down universities in the country for over hundred days was not acceptable to the Nigerian youth.
He added, “our major concern as youth leaders is that every day the students are shut out of school, they are exposed further to the danger of ultimately not being useful to themselves and to the larger society. They are becoming increasingly vulnerable to the myriad of societal ills, which is already threatening the social fabrics of this country, vis-a-vis the menace of armed robbery, terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, prostitution and so many other acts capable of destabilizing this country.
“While ASUU remains adamant with reference to the agreement under dispute, the rot it is also nurturing by virtue of its protracted incessant strikes should also not be lost on the lecturers,” he further pointed out.
However, while some see the on-going strike as a waste, some students have taken advantage of it to engage themselves positively by learning vocational skills.
Some students of the University of Lagos who spoke to LEADERSHIP said they had commenced learning of vocational skills like tailoring, hairdressing and others in order to keep themselves busy pending the call off of the strike. Thus, a good percentage of students appear indifferent and are not accusing government of insensitivity as many are doing because they are now positively engaged.
In the face of the on-going blame game as well as the stand of the NANS president, Yinka Gbadebo on the current strike, the University of Lagos branch of ASUU, has said the protests by NANS and some women groups in Abuja were sponsored by the government to rubbish ASUU.
The chairman of ASUU UNILAG, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka said, “ASUU UNILAG thereby dissociates herself from any form of protests for or against the strike action. We thereby commend the huge population of genuine students that have made the likes of Gbadebo to remain what they are, irrelevant entities”.
The union added that its attention was drawn to the devilish and nefarious plans and activities of NANS leader and said he was rusticated from Ekiti State University in 2009.
“We are aware of his sponsors and financiers. Also, in order to be foisted on genuine Nigerian students, Mr. Gbadebo was admitted for a one year diploma programme at OAU, Ife. He ought to have concluded this programme long before the commencement of ASUU strike that was declared in July, 2013; as those with whom he was admitted have all graduated. Gbadebo is not known at OAU Ife apart from the face of news media”, it said.
Lampooning the student union leader, the ASUU chairman fumed, “apart from being a diploma-in-view student, claiming to lead a teaming population of Nigerian undergraduates’ at all tertiary levels, Gbadebo has chosen to lead his dreamed followers from the comfort of a hotel at Durumi Area 1, Abuja.
“We are aware that the so called NANS, under him has no office or address. Unfortunately, Gbadebo is enjoying unlimited access to agents of government even at very high levels. We use this medium to call on all students to reject all forms of retaliation even in the face of intimidation, assault and violence,” he added.
The union accused Gbadebo and his group of being provided the logistics and instruments for an effective disruption of public order, harmony and decorum, calling on the Lagos state Commissioner of Police to forestall any breach of public peace and order.
Read Next ...
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