The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that strike is not imminent, if the Federal Government implements the agreements reached, in the next two weeks.

Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU said this in an interview with

It would be recalled that ASUU had threatened to embark on strike over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the federal government.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman had on June 26, invited the union for a meeting to deliberate on the lingering issues affecting universities and to avert the planned strike.

Osodeke said none of the agreements reached with the Federal Government had been implemented.

“At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we will meet to see the progress the government has made.

“We will also see what we will do next, if government fail to implement the agreements reached.

“The meeting in the next two weeks is to see what they have done which will inform our decision,” he said.

The ASUU president said some of the demands included, the non implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.

He said the agreements had lingered for over six years and government was yet to implement them.

Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years and nothing had been done about it

On the issue of revitalisation fund, he said they agreed on the NEEDs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion yearly, for five years.

“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation fund to upgrade our universities to standard, so that we can be having students and lecturers from outside the country,” he said.

Oshodeke added that the government was yet to stop the proliferation of universities adding that many new universities were being approved without fund to run them.

He said the government was also yet to exit the university salary payment from Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System!(IPPIS) as approved by the Federal Executive Council in January

He said their members were still being paid by IPPIS against the directive by the FEC.

By Dennis Udoma, Uyo

Professor of Mathematics Education in the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Amos Awodeyi has decried the decline in Mathematics teachers across school systems nationwide.

Awodeyi said the decline in professional mathematics teachers in primary, secondary and tertiary systems in the State, could turn into a dangerous trend if the situation is not addressed in order for the school system to remain atop and able to  produce future  Mathematics professionals.

The University Don made this known during the 101st inaugural lecture held at the main campus of the institution on Thursday titled, “The Art of Mathematics Education, Development, Research and Teaching; My Journey So Far.”

Awodeyi, who gave an expose on the subject matter stunned participants; students, teachers, school management with discoveries in the world of Mathematics, and charged the students to develop passion and commitment in learning the subject.

“The starting point towards ameliorating the poor performance in mathematics learning and teaching is retraining of serving teachers on teaching documents.

“Further Mathematics should be made compulsory for all secondary school students who aspire to study science, mathematics and engineering at tertiary level of education.

“Teachers should let the mathematics topics make sense to their students; teach with the knowledge of the goals of mathematics teaching in schools, and focus on the objectives of teaching the topics in the classroom; tools and instructional materials should be handy; students should be engaged with relevant activities in the classroom and take home exercises should generate activities for students,” Prof. Awodeyi advised.

Vice Chancellor and Chairman of the inaugural lecture, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo commended the lecturer for his expertise in mathematics describing him as a great asset to the University.

He extolled Awodeyi’s scholarly ingenuity in Mathematics maintaining that he has paid his last due required of every Processor and inducted him into the “Hall of Fame” of the inaugural lecturers of the institution.

The authorities of the University of Benin on Thursday shut down academic activities in the institution indefinitely.

The university in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, Dr Benedicta Ehanire, attributed the decision to the refusal of the students of to shift grounds on their demands.

The students on Wednesday took to the streets, blocking the ever-busy Benin-Ore Highway to protest weeks of power outage on campus.

The students, who had two weeks until their first semester examination, said the situation was severely affecting their preparation.

The students also called for a downward review of transport fare by the UNIBEN shuttle service, which was increased with effect from July 1.

Reports state that the university was thrown into a blackout by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) following the inability to reach agreement over contentious electricity billings.

The monthly bill was said to have jumped from about N80 million to between N200 and N280 million, forcing the university to resort to power generators as well as rationalisation of power on the two campuses and hostels.

When a correspondent spoke with the protesting students amidst heavy rainfall, they were hellbent on continuing the rampage unless their demands are met.

“Following the insistence of students of the University of Benin to shift grounds on their demands for twenty four hours supply of electricity and more, considered unrealistic by the University’s Senate, the University has shut down academic activities indefinitely.

“Students are to vacate the hostels immediately while all the relevant units of the University are to take note and comply.

“However, non teaching staff and staff on essential duties are not affected by the shut down,” said the university’s spokesperson.