Nigeria Universities Updates

THE Federal Government will spend $1.2 million (about N200 million) on 2010 Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS) to be carried out in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The chairman, National Population Commission (NPC), Chief Samui’la Makama, disclosed this, on Tuesday, at the signing of an agreement on NEDS and its inauguration at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

The agreement, which was between Research Triangle Institute International of the United States of America and the NPC, according to Chief Makama, came at a time Nigeria strived to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and overcome its educational challenges.

He said education data surveys were normally conducted immediately after the National Demographic Housing Survey (NDHS) so as to collect additional data on a subset of household survey in the NDHS.

The proposed NEDS, he said, was intended to collect additional information and to statistically link it with data from the 2008 NDHS to create a broader data set.

The representative of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Nigeria, Dr. Shandy Ojikutu, commended Nigeria for providing the opportunity to work with USAID, adding that the survey would provide the opportunity of knowing facts relating to education in the country.

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THE Senate resumed sitting in Abuja, on Tuesday, after a two-month recess and expressed regret over the festering crisis between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government, which has paralysed academic activities in the country for over three months.

While lamenting the effect of the strike on Nigerian students, the Senate assured that it would do all it could to bring it to an end.

The spokesman of Senate, Senator Ayogu Eze, in a media briefing at the National Assembly Complex, blamed the crisis on the global financial crisis, adding that a solution must be sought to the crisis to guarantee the future of Nigeria.

Senator Eze informed that the leadership of the Senate, besides the Senate’s Committee on Education, would tackle the issue to make sure the university unions returned to work within the shortest time.

“What has happened is a symptom of the general collapse in the finances of the world, not just Nigeria. You know that the world is still reeling from the effects of the global financial meltdown. I think that some of the things that are happening are symptoms of the meltdown,” he said.

He added that “be that as it may, the Senate is going to lend its voice to ensure that we see how we can bring this strike to an end.”

In another development, the academic and non-academic staff of the Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, under the Joint Consultative Council of Staff Unions (JCCSU), have resolved to resign en masse instead of going back to work unless the Federal Government signed the agreement it reached with the ASUU.

Addressing journalists in Umuahia, the state capital, on Tuesday, the chairman of ASUU/JCCSU, George Chima, blamed the government for keeping students at home, saying it was not committed.

“There is no going back. We are behind our respective national executive councils. We will rather resign en masse than betray this national struggle for the sustainability of the university system in Nigeria,” he said.

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ABOUT 700,000 students from various universities have decided to storm Abuja next month to go naked, because of the strike that has kept all of them at home.

This was made known by the Students Mobilisation Officer of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Mr. Sylvester Eze, while briefing newsmen in Owerri, the Imo State capital, on Tuesday.

According to him, the NANS meeting, which is coming up next month, would be an avenue to show the world their grievances by going naked. He explained that they would be having their bath openly and eating openly in all the major streets and roads of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

He said President Umaru Yar’Adua made education one of his seven-point agenda, adding that any government that could not develop its human resources through education had no need to continue in office.

He said: “And for failing to carry education along, we hereby pass a vote of no confidence in the president’s seven-point agenda.” Eze pointed out that the benchmark budget for education by UNESCO was 26 per cent, adding that Nigeria had consistently approved budget less than eight per cent for education with this year’s allocation, two per cent, being the worst.

He added “As part of plans to make government sign the agreement, we are mobilising and conscientising students across the federation not to allow the forthcoming U-17 World Cup to be hosted in Nigeria and so we will do all that we can to see that that event does not succeed if we are still at home before it kicks off.”

Meanwhile, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) of the University of Agriculture, (UNAAB), Abeokuta, took to the streets of the Ogun State capital, on Tuesday morning, protesting the alleged insensitivity of the Federal Government to the demands of the unions.

The peaceful protest virtually brought both vehicular and commercial activities to a halt as the protesters carried placards with various inscriptions asking the Federal Government to implement the agreement, earlier signed with the unions.

The protesters went through major areas like Isale–Igbein, Omida, Oke-Ilewo, and Sapon. The chairman of ASUU, UNAAB branch, Dr. Agboola Adesina, appealed to the Federal Government to go back to the negotiating table with ASUU and sign the agreement on increased funding of the nation’s universities, improved conditions of service for members, among other demands.

The union leader appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on President Yar’Adua, the Education Minister, Dr. Sam Egwu, and Professor Julius Okojie, Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), who were all lecturers in the university system to end the current crisis which has paralysed the nation’s universities since June.

Adesina said that ASUU had made spirited efforts to ensure that a conducive atmosphere for learning was created in all the nation’s universities, as he stated that there was enormous decay in physical facilities and that there were no facilities to teach the students.

The ASUU leader pointed out that the Federal Government had failed in the area of meeting the 26 per cent budget recommendation for education by UNESCO as he said that only 1.7 per cent of the current budget was allocated to education.

ASUU, therefore, called on senators, legislators and councillors to ask the Federal Government to sign the ASUU-FG agreement now. SSANU chairman, UNAAB branch, Mr. Olayiwola Salaam, faulted the Federal Government for rescinding the decision agreed on with the union on salary structure, saying that the collective bargaining freely entered into with the union was disclaimed, as it announced a unilateral increase of 40 per cent for ASUU and 20 per cent for other unions.

Salaam explained that the struggle by the unions was not for their personal interests but for all Nigerian youths and the nation at large on the need for qualitative education in the nation’s universities.

In a related development, hope for eventual resolution of the lingering crisis in the nation’s university system came alive on Tuesday with the commencement of the much-awaited renegotiation between the Federal Government and ASUU. The meeting took off at about 7.30 p.m. at the secretariat of the National Universities Commission (NUC).

The ASUU executive members of the union, led by its national president, Professor Ukachukwu Awuzie were the first to arrive at about 5.30 p.m. and wait for the arrival of the Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu.

Others in the team were the Vice Chairman, Dr. Abdullahi Fegge; former national presidents, Drs. Dipo Fashina and Abdullahi Sule-Kano, among others.

Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is the mediator, came just before 7.00 p.m., while Dr. Egwu, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Professor Oladapo Afolabi, chairman of the Federal Government/ASUU Negotiating Team, Mr. Gamaliel Onosode, Director, Tertiary Education, Dr. Jamila Suara and other members of the negotaiting team arrived at 7.27 p.m.

Comrade Oshiomhole apologised for the late commencement of the meeting, saying that it was due to another meeting that was held after the meeting he earlier had with the union.

Oshiomhole, in his remark before the closed door meeting, said the meeting convened to revisit the dispute with the hope to finding amicable resolution to the crisis.

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NIGERIAN female students in universities, under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Female Students (NANFS), have accused the federal government of insensitivity to the plight of Nigerian students as displayed in the willful pull out of negotiation with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The female students’ body has consequently given the federal government one month within which to resolve the issues with the ASUU or have all the Nigerian female students in the country take over the streets of Abuja in a mass protest.

National President of the Association, Miss Ifeoma Ofo, a Medical Laboratory Technology student from the Ebonyi State University at a news briefing in Abuja, said the federal government should demonstrate that it believed in educating the Nigerian youth by returning to the negotiation table with ASUU as the only way to resolve the crisis.

She said the government should not continue to play the ostrich with the matter, pointing out that the demands of the ASUU were genuine, “Because we study in the universities without light, water, students perch around on windows to receive lectures, our libraries are glorified ones and there is a general decay in the system”.

Ofo added that consultations were already on by the association with its parent body, the National Association of Nigerian Students, to embark on a full scale mass protest since the government, which naturally should be the one to create industrial harmony, mischievously pulled out of negotiation with ASUU leaders, an indication that it did not have the interest of the Nigerian youth at heart.

She stated that by abandoning the negotiation one week after reopening it with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the federal government had already joined the strike, thereby plunging the system deeper into crisis.

While condemning the government’s withdrawal from the negotiation, she said it was too cheap a blackmail to threaten the lecturers to call off the strike without a reasonable progress on how to resolve outstanding issues.

She said: “It is cheap blackmail to insist that unless the union returns to work it would not resume the negotiation. By abandoning negotiation, government has now joined the strike. The point is that negotiation can be conducted whether or not there is an ongoing strike”.

Ofo, who led other delegation of female students from Ahmadu Bello University Zaria (ABU), Benue State University, Makurdi, University of Lagos, University of Abuja, University of Maiduguri and Enugu State Universities, said the female students were more vulnerable to the impact of the prolonged strike as some of them had already gone into prostitution, adding that there were serious negative consequences on students’ performance when they were out of academic environment for long time.

She said: “ASUU gave several warning strikes before the real strike. If the government were serious, it ought to have nipped the crisis in the bud. This is why we must condemn all those ‘no victor, no vanquished’ people who appeal to ASUU and government to see reason. They are wrong. It is the government that should see reason, not ASUU.

“The government had no right to terminate that negotiation. We have heard from both sides, and we realised that government should be responsible enough to honour this agreement, which is good for the university system. Enough is enough. We call on government to accept ASUU’s conditions so we can go back to classroom”, she stated.

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STRIKING university teachers on Monday, trooped out in their large number going round major streets of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, blaming the Federal Government for their continued strike.

The striking teachers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), declared that rather than blaming them for the strike, the Federal Government should be blamed for its non-responsiveness and irresponsibility to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerians.

According to them, it was the Federal Government’s delegation that walked out of the negotiation table and not the striking lecturers and wondered why and how an employer would abandon negotiation with his or her employees.
They, therefore, declared that the Federal Government should be held responsible for whatever may be the outcome of the strike.

The chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union, Dr. Ademola Aremu, who led the rally, disclosed this during the sensitisation rally held to inform the public of the reasons for the prolonged strike, spanning over three months now, to ensure better funding of university education in Nigeria, among other things.

The rally, which took off from Mellanby Hall Car Park at the University of Ibadan, had ASUU members, supported by their counterparts in both the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities (SSANU) and the Non-Academic Staff of Universities (NASU) and moved round the university environment before taking to the streets with intermittent, addressing members of the public in all the major local languages of the country.

The procession later moved from the university main gate to Bodija Market, where the traders, including drivers, artisans and other passers-by were addressed.

They said the Federal Government should be begged to accede to the request of the teachers so that they would be able to go back to work. Speaking with newsmen, the ASUU local chairman noted with regret that the government was toying with the future of Nigerian youths because the children of all the leaders were enjoying the best of tertiary education abroad, using tax-payers’ money, stressing that they had forgotten that those children would come back to live in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government has said that the ongoing strike by SSANU and NASU, will be the last prolonged crisis the education sector will ever experience in the country.

To ensure this, the government said on Monday, that the administration had resolved to institutionalise a national wage policy that would spell out gradual increment of wages and salary across all sector, of the economy.

Minister of Labour and Productivity, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, told the Nigerian Tribune on Monday that the Federal Government was set to institutionalise a national wage policy that would determine how wages were increased in the public sector.

The policy, according to him, would be an outcome of collective bargaining involving the government, employers of labour and the workers, as represented by their trade union leadership.

He added that the ministry was already working towards institutionalising the issue of collective bargaining in the public sector in line with international best practices to eliminate ad-hoc approach in its discussion with labour.

Prince Kayode who spoke with Nigerian Tribune shortly after the inaugurating of blocks of renovated and computerised classrooms, which he initiated with MTN at the Community Comprehensive High School, Ikaramu-Akoko, his country home in Ondo State on Monday, said the national wage policy would solve all the problems being associated with demands for wages and salaries in the country.

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The Federal Government said on Thursday that it was ready to commence the suspended negotiation with the striking universities workers, under the three major trade unions within the system – the Academic Staff Association of Universities (ASUU), Senior Staff Association of Universities (SSANU) and the Non- Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU).

The government made known its intention, even as it declared that increasing and massive unemployment as well as insecurity situation in the country were posing serious challenges to the present administration.

Speaking during the 2009 Ministerial Press Briefing of the Ministry of Labour Employment and Productivity, the Minister of Labour, Prince Adetokunbo Kayode, said the government was desirous to negotiate with ASUU, SSANU and NASU, so that they would immediately go back to classes.

Prince Kayode explained that the government was determined to do this so that the students would be able to go back to school and complete their 2008/2009 academic session on time.

The minister regretted that while the private universities have already completed the 2008/2009 academic session and started the 2009/2010 session, those in government universities have not even known when the 2008/2009 would be completed, while they have been at home for three months.

He pointed out that the issue of ASUU had become an intractable one, adding that the way and manner the Federal Government had handled it because of the command structure of the past was now hunting the government.

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