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  • ASUU, mind your business! – By Hope Eghagha

    ASUU, mind your business! – By Hope Eghagha

    Prof. Temi: It is preposterous, ridiculous, and unbecoming of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to poke its combative nose into matters that do, should not concern it. What is ASUU’s business with students loans which the federal government has signed into law?

    First Daughter: Haba! Tell them, tell them for me Professor!

    Prof Temi: Yes, I’ve told them, I’ve told the hierarchy. I have told them to return home to their original obligations to ASUU members.  At the branch level, the union leaders do not tolerate any dissenting view.  I am now speaking to their leaders at the national level – return home to cater to the welfare of ASUU members.

    Prof. Friday: Why? What is your definition of welfare? Is welfare not dependent on internal, local, regional and international factors? Shouldn’t ASUU seek their welfare in a comprehensive manner, including that of their immediate communities? Sir, I don’t get what you are saying! But for ASUU the university system would have collapsed decades ago!

    Temi: Has it not collapsed already?

    Prof. Friday: It could have been worse! ASUU made it possible for more funding to be available to the universities. Do you remember what the life of the average academic was like before the Jega-ASUU led strike?

    Temi: It is this penchant for poking their nose into the affairs of ‘their immediate communities’ that has stagnated our salaries since 2009. The same people we claim to fight for vilify ASUU for going on strike ‘anyhow! We are tired of making mumu sacrifices all in the name of others. Polytechnic lecturers earn more than university professors. Welfare is welfare – emoluments, take-home pay that can take us home, enough funds to do research, to attend international conferences. Period!

    Friday: An ASUU that does not bother about the welfare of the citizens in its environment has no reason to exist!

    Temi: An ASUU that second-places the welfare of its members has no reason to exist!

    Friday: We are dealing with insensitive governments that don’t care about the people, about education. ASUU is the last vocal body in the country. Even the human rights organizations in Nigeria have all gone to sleep since APC came to power.

    First Daughter: Excuse me Professor! Is ASUU a political party? Why don’t they join Peter Obi’s Labour Party or any other party to fight for the people? If their agenda is to fight government because of the general conditions in the country, then we shall proscribe the union. Haba!

    Friday: Go ahead and do so! We dare you.

    First Daughter: Try us. Go on strike again and see what will happen to your gidigidi union. Every time its strike strike strike! ASUU needs to put on its thinking cap and adopt new methods!

    Friday: it is the government of the day that has been irresponsible, corrupt, inept, greedy, inefficient, nepotic, insensitive, and callous.

    Prof. Lanre: Calm down everyone; let us calm down! It is true that ASUU has defended the university system for decades. But the time has come to focus on the direct welfare and personal emoluments of the persons who produce the manpower in the country. I am a professor. After taxes, all I take home every month is two hundred and sixty thousand naira. 260,000 naira only! How long can we continue like this. No professor in a federal university takes home five hundred thousand naira monthly. Shame! Shame! Shame!

    Dr Jegede: One wonders why ASUU should leave some very urgent issues like our withheld salaries and a call for salary review for some amorphous national issues. It is true that the Union needs to comment on such national issues but it should not be done to the neglect of members’ personal welfare. Sometimes I don’t know where we are in the union!

    Dr. O’Dami: I am a PhD lecturer, a senior lecturer in a federal university. My take home every month is under two hundred and fifty thousand naira!

    First Daughter: That must be a lie. No PhD holder teaching in a university should take home anything less than five hundred thousand naira in this economy!

    Dr. O’Dami: You see! You do not have the correct information. Tell your father that the bottom line is that university academics in Nigeria deserve a better pay structure. Period!

    Friday: That information is correct. The pay structure is bad. But I have been in the university system for over thirty-five years. I was once a Vice Chancellor. I have a broader perspective on issues. The quality of life of ASUU members will only be better when the quality of living of ALL Nigerians improves. We cannot extricate ASUU from the sufferings of the larger society and pretend that we are improving ASUU’s welfare. That cannot be the case!

    O’Dami: ASUU as a union should concentrate on fighting for the welfare of her members. Let the others fight for themselves. ASUU should desist from fighting for people who have no understanding of ASUU’s agitations. We dint vote in our national officers to fight for the poor. It is a union of academics. Not a trade union. What is NLC doing? NANS has now denounced ASUU as a busybody on the students’ loan matter.

    Temi: There should be a paradigm shift. If ASUU doesn’t refocus, most of us will drift into CONUA. The younger academics have no patience with the old tactics and such egalitarian arguments about stabilizations funds. They complain about TETFUND which was suggested by ASUU and how that body has been hijacked by evil servants and entrenched political interests. Let NANS fight for students as they used to do in the 1970s. Let NLC fight for workers and the masses. Let NURTW fight for road transport workers. Let the market unions fight for market traders. Is ASUU fighting for SSANU, for NASU? Do they go on joint strikes!

    Friday: You are being selfish! Just thinking about yourself first.

    Dr. Abam: ASUU cares too much about everything in its environment and stifles the voices of student unions. ASUU should cry to the government differently on is own issues; and students unions should cry to the government about the learning environment. Most student unions in the universities are dead, killed by ASUU members who become Vice Chancellors and administrators!

    Dr. Ejor: Sir, ASUU cannot continue this way. We cannot continue to make sacrifices on an empty stomach. It is those who ae alive that make sacrifices. We must protect our welfare interest first before we talk about others. If the national officers were not listening, they should listen now! God bless you Sirs!

    First Daughter: Some of the things you are saying are strange to me. Very strange!

    Temi: You are just a daughter to the president or the governor. How much do you know about university problems?

    First Daughter: You will be surprised. I can press buttons that you will never access to!

    Dr. Abam: Isn’t that a problem?

    Prof. Lanre: Why, how is it a problem? A man sees a dangerous snake and a woman kills it. The important thing is that the snake is dead!

    Temi: What we have said is that we appreciate all the struggle embarked on by ASUU. But the time has come to concentrate on the salary and welfare package of members. Since 2009, our salary package has not changed. What kind of idealism allows a union to ignore the personal welfare of its members?

    First Daughter: ASUU, mind your business!

  • UPDATE: Finally, Ex-ASUU President, Dipo Fasina ‘Jingo’ located in Turkey

    UPDATE: Finally, Ex-ASUU President, Dipo Fasina ‘Jingo’ located in Turkey

    Popular former president of ASUU, Professor Dipo Fasina has been located in Istanbul, Turkey.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) recalls barely six hours ago close associates of the Professor Fasina had raised an alarm that he could not be located after missing flight from Istanbul to connect Algeria.

    The cheering news is that Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, in collaboration with the Nigeria High Commission in Turkey, has successfully located Prof Fasina who went missing for a few days at Istanbul Airport while connecting on a flight back home.

    Mr. Fasina, 76, was traveling to Algeria when he was said to have missed his connecting flight from Istanbul, Turkey.

  • Just In: Popular ex-ASUU president, Fasina missing

    Just In: Popular ex-ASUU president, Fasina missing

    A popular Nigerian scholar and former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dipo Fasina, nicknamed ‘Jingo,’ by his students has been missing since Saturday, 1 July.

    This was confirmed by the incumbent President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, in a telephone interview.

    Mr Fasina, 76, was travelling to Algeria reportedly at the invitation of the Algerian government when he was said to have missed his connecting flight from Istanbul, Turkey.

    ” His whereabouts have since remained unknown.

    The Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, also confirmed to a popular online medium that her organisation is aware and “we are working on it.”

    A scholar, activist, and unionist, Mr Fasina taught Philosophy for 34 years at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, which he joined in 1979 after returning from the University of California, Los Angeles, where he bagged his PhD certificate.

    He was nicknamed Jingo by his students as the favourite name he used to cite examples in his crowded classes.

    He was also credited with having founded the Philosophy department at Ogun State University (now Olabisi Onabanjo University), where he was said to have donated his entitlements to establish a library.

    Since his retirement from OAU, Mr Fasina has taught Philosophy across some Nigerian universities.

    Meanwhile, many friends and associates of the missing scholar including bodies such as ASUU and JAF are working towards his safe return.

    Speaking on Sunday, the ASUU president, Mr Osodeke, a professor, said the union is working hard to confirm the union’s leader’s whereabouts and ensure his return.

    “Yes, we are aware of the development and we are working on it, so when we are through in the next two or three days we will let you know,” Mr Osodeke said on the phone.

    Another associate of Mr Fasina who does not want to be quoted describing the matter as personal, confirmed that they may be travelling soon for the search.

    “This is really a personal matter and not a media case. We are working to bring him back and he will be fine. I may have to travel any moment from now to bring him back,” the source said.

    Also, in a terse message, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa confirmed that her organisation is working on the matter.

    “Yes, we are aware, and we are on it,” she wrote.

    A trustee of ASUU and the Chairperson of the Joint Action Front (JAF), a coalition of labour movements and civil society organisations championing pro-people struggles in Nigeria, Mr Fasina was born to the Ashogbon royal family of Lagos.

    Source: Premium Times

  • Dissolution of governing councils, a setback for university education – ASUU

    Dissolution of governing councils, a setback for university education – ASUU

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has faulted the decision of the Federal Government on the dissolution of the Governing Councils of all federal universities in the country.

    The union said that the move was inimical and a major setback toward the growth and development of university education in Nigeria.

    The Chairman of the University of Jos chapter of the union, Dr Chris Yilgwan, stated this in an interview with NAN on Saturday in Jos.

    The National Universities Commission (NUC) had on June 22, announced the dissolution of governing councils of all federal universities and boards of other agencies and parastatals in the country.

    Yilgwan, who condemned the move, insisted that such a trend, if allowed to continue, would cripple the university system.

    According to Yilgwan, the dissolution contravened the Act establishing federal universities, adding that it will stagnate the progress of the institutions.

    “The recent dissolution of the governing councils of federal universities by the National Universities Commission, does not conform with the Miscellaneous Act of 2003 as amended.

    “The Act provided a statutory tenure of governing councils of universities and so they cannot be dissolved at will like other boards.

    “The governing council is the highest decision-making body of every university, and once it is dissolved without immediate replacement, it stalls every major decision in the university.

    “So, we consider the dissolution as inimical to the progress of the university system and call on the federal government to rescind its decision,” he said.

    He appealed to the government at all levels to allow the universities to operate in accordance with the law establishing them.

  • NUC, ASUU at loggerheads over new Varsities curriculum

    NUC, ASUU at loggerheads over new Varsities curriculum

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the National Universities Commission (NUC) are at loggerheads over the introduction of the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).

    ASUU has condemned the CCMAS newly introduced by NUC, saying it cannot stand the test of time.

    ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, in a statement on Friday, argued that the new curriculum structure posed a threat to quality university education and would erode the powers of the university senate in Nigerian universities.

    According to the union, it is inexplicable that the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) pre-packaged 70 percent CCMAS contents were being “imposed” on the Nigerian University System (NUS).

    This, it said, leaves university senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, to work on only 30 percent.

    “ASUU posits that CCMAS portends serious dangers for quality university education in Nigeria. It is an erosion of University Autonomy and Academic Freedom which the Union has advocated and struggled to defend over time,” Osodeke said.

    “CCMAS is an emasculation of the university Senate which, by law and practice, should superintend curriculum review, examinations and award of degrees and certificates in each university.

    “ASUU suspects the imposition of CCMAS as part of the strategy for implementing the Nigerian University System Innovation Programme (NUSIP) of the World Bank. The Union rejected NUSIP in the 1990s. We also reject the imposition of CCMAS on Nigerian universities now!”

    It stressed that many university administrators, though dissatisfied, were shying away from making public comments on CCMAS.

    The statement revealed that some university Senates did not hide their displeasure with the ongoing efforts to impose CCMAS on Nigerian universities by the NUC.

    The ASUU president described the CCMAS as a nightmarish model of curriculum reengineering and an aberration to the Nigerian University System.

    He added that the CCMAS documents were flawed both in process and in content, saying there was no basis for the 70 percent “untouchable CCMAS” which in his view cannot stand the test of critical scrutiny of university Senates.

     

     

  • ASUU  disagrees with NUC over designed curriculum

    ASUU  disagrees with NUC over designed curriculum

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has rejected the Core Curriculum Minimum Academic Standards prepared by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

    The union said it was nightmarish, a threat to quality university education, and an erosion of powers of the university Senate in Nigerian universities.

    A statement signed by the national president of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, on Friday, explained that it was inexplicable that NUC pre-packaged 70 per cent CCMAS contents were being imposed on the Nigerian University System, adding that university Senates, who are statutorily responsible for academic programme development, were left to work on only 30 per cent.

    It stressed that there were growing concerns about the numerous shortcomings and gross inadequacies of the CCMAS documents.

    “ASUU is not unaware that setting academic standards and assuring quality in the NUS is within the remit of the NUC. Section 10(1) of the Education (National Minimum Standards and Establishment of Institutions) Act, Cap E3, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, enjoins the NUC to lay down the minimum standards for all universities and other degree awarding institutions in the Federation and conduct the accreditation of their degrees and other academic awards.

    “However, the process of generating the standard is as important (if not more important) than what is produced as “minimum standards”.

    “In this instance, the NUC has recently, through some hazy procedures, churned out CCMAS documents containing 70% curricular contents in 17 academic fields with little or no input from the universities. The academic disciplines covered are (i) Administration and Management, (ii) Agriculture, (iii) Allied Health Sciences, (iv) Architecture, (v) Arts, (vi) Basic Medical Sciences, (vii) Computing, (viii) Communication and Media Studies, (ix) Education, (x) Engineering and Technology, (xi) Environmental Sciences, (xii) Law, (xiii) Medicine and Dentistry, (xiv) Pharmaceutical Science, (xv) Sciences, (xvi) Social Sciences, and (xvii) Veterinary Medicine,” it read partly.

    It stressed that many university administrators, though dissatisfied, were shying away from making public comments on CCMAS.

    The statement revealed that, however, some university Senates did not hide their displeasure with the ongoing efforts to impose CCMAS on Nigerian universities by the NUC.

    It read, “The CCMAS is a nightmarish model of curriculum reengineering. It is an aberration to the Nigerian University System. The CCMAS documents are flawed both in process and in content. There is no basis for the 70% “untouchable CCMAS,” which cannot stand the test of critical scrutiny of university Senates.”

    However, it suggested that “NUC should encourage universities, as currently being done by the University of Ibadan, to propose innovations for the review of their programmes. Proposals from across universities should then be sieved and synthesised by more competent expert teams to review the existing BMAS documents and/or create new ones as appropriate.

    “The difference here is the bottom-up approach, unlike the top-bottom or take-it-or-leave-it model of the CCMAS.”

  • Industrial action: ASUU seeks presence with President Tinubu

    Industrial action: ASUU seeks presence with President Tinubu

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has disclosed making efforts to meet with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in order for the president to block all loopholes that might lead to industrial action.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the academic staff union made the disclosure in a terse statement published on its official Facebook page on Friday.

    According to ASUU in the statement, President Tinubu needs to set up a team of experts to negotiate with the union’s leadership to ensure harmony, industrial peace and a cordial relationship with the government.

    The statement reads: “We are trying to meet with the president to ensure harmony, industrial peace and cordial relationship with the government where nobody with bad blood will lord it over the universities.

    “He needs to set up a team of experts to negotiate with ASUU leadership to ensure that all loopholes that will lead to industrial action are blocked”.

  • Arrest killers of Prof. Ajewole – ASUU to Tinubu, IGP

    Arrest killers of Prof. Ajewole – ASUU to Tinubu, IGP

    The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Ibadan (UI) Chapter, has urged the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Baba, to assist the Oyo State Police Command with all logistics needed to unravel and arrest the killers of Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole.

    This is contained in a release signed by the Chairman, UI Chapter of ASUU, Prof. Ayo Akinwole in Ibadan on Thursday.

    Ajewole, until he was killed, was a lecturer in the Department of Social and Environmental Forestry Development

    Ajewole was gruesomely gunned down by yet-to-be-identified assailants in the evening of Monday, 5 June 2023, in Ibadan.

    The union has implored President Bola Tinubu to take passionate interest and ensure the security system unmasks the faces behind the murder of the professor.

    “The heart of every ASUU-UI member is bleeding so profusely as if pierced by swords.

    “Our bones shook so tremendously as if our marrows were naked in the tundra region.

    “We condemn in totality the gruesome murder of our comrade, Prof. Opeyemi Ajewole and charge the security operatives to track down and apprehend the perpetrators of this dastardly act, with a view to unraveling the motive behind the incident, as well as bringing the perpetrators to book,” UI ASUU Chairman said.

    According to Akinwole, the only tribute which the death of Ajewole deserves is that his killers are brought to justice and that Nigerians’ lives should matter to the Tinubu presidency

    He noted that “Prof. Ajewole’s gruesome murder again reminded us of how valueless human lives had become in our clime“.

    The ASUU chief maintained that “death lurks in all imaginable and unimaginable corners of this country and comes cheaply.

    “The Nigerian populace is constantly assailed by terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, assassination, hunger, unemployment, and many more insidious exterminators of our individual and collective dreams.

    “The situation of the Nigerian academics is even doubly precarious; they are prophets without any honour at home,“ he said.

    Akinwole said that despite the immense contributions to national growth and development and recognition in the international circle, Nigerian academia is scorned and shabbily treated at home.

    `It is, therefore, disheartening that academics who cultivate, preserve, and disseminate knowledge for the advancement and development of the society will become victims of societal malady to such an extent as to be targeted for elimination.

    “The union wishes to use this teary occasion of Prof. Ajewole’s sudden death to call on the Nigerian state to resolutely tackle the problem of insecurity in the country, apprehend the killers of Prof. Ajewole and punish them most appropriately,“ the ASUU boss said.

  • ASUU: Court upholds no work no pay order by FG

    ASUU: Court upholds no work no pay order by FG

    The National Industrial Court has upheld the no work no pay rule by the Federal Government in the suit filed against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

    According to the court, the no work no pay rule enforced by the Federal Government against members of ASUU who went on strike last year is perfectly legal.

    In a judgement delivered by the President of the Court, Justice Benedict Kanyip, the court held that it is within the right of the Federal Government to withhold salaries of workers who embark on industrial action.

    The court however held that it is a violation of University Autonomy for the Federal Government to impose the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform on members of ASUU who reserve the right to determine how their salaries should be paid.

    The Federal Government had dragged ASUU before the National Industrial Court over the demand of the Union for the payment of their salaries from February 14 to October 7, 2022, when the strike was called off.

  • Court declares FG’s “no work no pay” against ASUU legal

    Court declares FG’s “no work no pay” against ASUU legal

    The National Industrial Court on Tuesday declared that the Federal Government position of ‘ no work no pay” against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), is legal.

    Delivering the judgment, Justice Benedict Kanyip declared that ASUU was not entitled to salary during the period it embarked on strike.

    The Court in addition held that in line with section 43(1a) of the Trade Dispute Act (TDA) ASUU members who participated in the eight months strike were not entitled to salaries.

    “Although employers and workers can enter an agreement, for which the workers will be paid during the period of a strike action, when such agreement was not made, no worker is expected to get paid.”

    Kanyip declared that the federal government and Minister of Education who were the claimants in the suit were wrong to pray for the court to impose sanctions on ASUU for embarking on a peaceful strike.

    The judge termed it as a gross violation to their right to freedom of association as stipulated by International Labour Organisation’s ( ILO) jurisprudence.

    “There is nothing before the court to prove that ASUU was not peaceful during the strike”

    “No employee should be victimised or sanctioned for embarking on peaceful strike,” the court ruled.

    The court also held that the claimants cannot force ASUU to accept payment of its members salaries through Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) so long as they confirm to their budgetary allocation.

    The court clarified that because of university’s autonomy, the claimant’s submission that ASUU’s payment platform system failed integrity test it was subjected to by NITDA, was mere hearsay

    The court also held that in line with section 18 of the TDA, no employer shall embark on lockout and no worker shall embark on an industrial action when trade dispute is apprehended and a reconciliation is on going.

    Section 43(2) of the trade dispute act , which gives sole powers to the Minister to determine if there has been a lockout by an employer, falls contrary to section 6 of 1999 constitution as amended

    “The determination of a lockout is for the court to decide and not for the executive arm of the government”

    Kanyip concluded that with regards to the declaration one sought by the claimants, the court ruled that since the strike had been called off on the order of the same court, it would not go beyond the ruling of the presiding judge’s ruling.

    Claimants in the suit had dragged ASUU before the court to determine the substantive suit filed during ASUU’s eight-month strike 2022.

    The claimants had also sought for interpretation and application of some TDA formulated through six questions, six reliefs, and six determinations.