ASUU strike: NANS threatens to truncate presidential primaries, political activities in FCT
….As FG appeals to striking unions in varsities to embrace dialogue
By NewsDirect
The National Association of Nigerian Students on Sunday dared major opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and ruling Party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) that it would not allow political activities and conventions to select presidential candidates in Abuja unless it finds solutions to the lingering crisis with the Academic Union.
This is just as the Federal Government appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other unions in tertiary institutions who are currently on strike to embrace dialogue.
The National President of Nigerian Students Union, Sunday Asefon made the threat to truncate Presidential primaries known in a press statement made available to journalists yesterday.
Nigerian NewsDirect gathered that both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ruling Party All Progressives Congress (APC) have picked the Federal Capital Territory for its May Convention to select their presidential candidates later this month.
However, whilst issuing the threat, Asefon warned the federal government to either end the strike embarked upon by ASUU from February 14, 2022, or forget about holding any presidential primary in the nation’s capital.
They further expressed anger that those saddled to ensure the smooth running of the education sector including Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, and Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, have picked up the outrageous N100million presidential forms of the ruling APC despite the state of universities across the nation.
In the statement titled, ‘End ASUU Strike Or Forget Political Activities In Abuja’, the NANS president said, “We have also in the past weeks seen those saddled with great responsibility in the education sector and those saddled with responsibilities of resolving labour crises declaring interest to contest for the seat of the President come 2023.
“We are surprised by their effrontery and total disrespect to the Nigerian people for having the courage to even mute the idea of contesting talkless of picking up the N100million presidential form while students languish at home because of their collective failures.
“Politicians have shown no concern to the plight of the students but are only busy in their selfish and inordinate ambitions to become the next President
“Let me say without mincing words, the two major political parties should forget any political gathering in Abuja, except where there is a solution to the lingering ASUU strike.
“We will frustrate all the activities leading to the selection of party candidates if we remain on strike. We also want to advise the government and the politicians who are busy campaigning to be President to either resolve the ASUU crises or give direct orders to the security operative to shoot us at the site during party conventions to select a presidential candidate. If we remain on strike, they should just forget it.”
ASUU, on March 14, at the expiration of its four-week warning strike which it declared on Monday, February 14, had extended the industrial action by two months.
The Union led by Professor Emmanuel Osodeke said it made the decision to extend the strike so as to give the Federal Government and its agencies enough time to meet the lingering demands of the union.
The lecturers’ demands include funding of the Revitalisation of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, and University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears.
Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), among others.
FG appeals to striking University unions across nation to embrace dialogue
Meanwhile, the Vice President Prof Yemi Osinbajo appealed to ASUU as well as other Unions in the Universities to shelve their long strike and embrace dialogue
The Vice President stated this during the 2022 International Workers Day celebration on Sunday in Abuja with the theme, ‘Labour, Politics and the Quest for Good Governance.
Osinbajo assured that the federal government was not unmindful of the ongoing strike in public universities and also the anxieties of students and their parents and the thoughts of uncertain future.
In his words, “We are not unmindful of the anxieties of our children and their parents who are plagued by thoughts of an uncertain future as they stay home because their universities have been shut by an industrial action.
“I appeal to ASUU and the broader labour community to seek the path of dialogue.”
The vice president, however, noted that disagreement and debate have always been part of the relationship between labour and the government.
He added that, even as we disagree today, we must not do so as mortal adversaries but as members of the same progressive family.
He said, “We both want the same thing — a country that works for all and offers each citizen a fair deal — even if occasionally we differ on how to achieve this goal.
“But at all times, we have through dialogue found a path forward. It in this spirit that I call on ASUU to embrace dialogue with the Government.
“I call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress to help facilitate a resolution of this dispute through dialogue,’’ he said.
Osinbajo added, “I believe that we can find a path forward in good faith. And this is what we will do.”
On his part, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, urged organised Labour to continue to eliminate actions inimical to the quest for good governance and development in the country.
Ngige appealed to labour to embrace acclaimed institutions of consensus building in times of differing opinions, rather than debilitating actions that lead to complications.
He said such complications include loss of mandays and decreased productivity that threaten the existence of the enterprise and result in job losses.
He, however, frowned at the situation where strikes are always the first option considered by the unions in pressing home their demands.
