The National Assembly has summoned the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, over the ongoing strike in the nation's tertiary institutions
They are to appear before the Senate and the House of Representatives' Committees on Education today. This was disclosed yesterday by Prof. Rufai, during her meeting with the Committee of Vice Chancellors of federal, state and private universities, in Abuja. While reiterating the Federal Government's commitment in ensuring that universities operate without interruptions, Rufai, however, appealed to the striking lecturers to sheath their swords, in the interest of the students.
She said: "We and ASUU and all those that are concerned are going to meet with the Senate and House of Representatives tomorrow. But, the good thing is that we plead that the lecturers go back to classes, so that our children will go back..."
The minister also expressed concern at the way and manner some universities abuse the award of honorary degrees, even as she urged administrators to look into the issue, so as to restore sanity in the process.
On wrong mobilisation of students for the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Rufai warned that some universities will henceforth be sanctioned over the issue, adding that "students from unaccredited institutions will be disqualified, and universities that engage in wrong mobilisation sanctioned." Against the backdrop of reported incidents of armed robbery and other crimes on campus, the minister advised university managements to liaise with relevant government agencies, to ensure safety of students.
The minister also expressed the determination of government to use the instrumentality of the National Universities Commission, NUC, to sanction erring universities that charge more than N2000 for UTME.
Meanwhile, ASUU yesterday vowed that the strike will be called-off only when government honours the letter and the spirit of the 2009 agreement. ASUU President, Dr Nasir Fagge Isa, made this position known in Abuja, during a review of President Goodluck Jonathan's Mid-Term report, with specific focus on Education, Agriculture and Transportation.
The review was organised by a non-governmental organisation, the Civil Society Forum. Isa said: "It is time government did the right thing, and that is the only way forward.
Whether the strike will continue or be called off, is depending on government's decision. "If the government does what is right, I assure you that we will call off the strike immediately, we will look at what government has done and we will review the situation."
Reacting to the Federal Government's argument that no proper notice was issued before the strike, Dr. Isa said that it was not mandatory for the union to issue any notice. "I must remind you that a strike is a fundamental right of a worker, if it becomes clear to a worker that the dialogue with his employer is becoming the dialogue of the deaf and dump, the worker has the right to withdraw his services, that is a fundamental right; it is enshrined in the International Labour Organisation, ILO, conventions, and it is part of the right of Nigerian citizens.
"We have realised that, each time we reached an agreement with the government, government finds it difficult to faithfully implement the provisions of the agreement and that is the reason why our members nationwide advised that we just go back to the trenches.
"You should ask the government, out of the nine provisions of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) we had how many have been implemented.
"Of all the problems identified in the Need Assessment report, how many have been implemented? Our universities are still the way they are; we don't want to continue deceiving ourselves. We expect that dialogue should produce results, we have been dialoguing for one and half years and we are tired of doing that, we want actions," he said.
National Mirror
The whole strike thing should just be dealt with on time because it does not make sense anymore. The students are weary and tired of it.