By ARMSTRONG ALLAHMAGANI, Bauchi –
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi Branch, has alleged that the Federal Government is not interested in funding public universities in the country.
It said that the underfunding of public universities in the country under the pretext that the government has no money was a deliberate attempt to introduce exorbitant school fees which the ordinary Nigerians cannot afford.
Chairperson of ASUU, ATBU Branch, Ibrahim Inuwa stated this at a press conference held at the ASUU Secretariat, ATBU, shortly after staging a peaceful protest on Tuesday.
Our Correspondent reports that the Union held a congress after which they staged the protest from their Secretariat and marched to the main ATBU gate and back to their starting point.
They sang solidarity songs and carried placards with various inscriptions such as: “ASUU calls for deployment of UTAS,” ASUU rejects prorating of academics’ salaries,” “ASUU is more patriotic than FGN officials,” “Release withheld salaries of academics,” “We say no to privatization of public universities,” “IPPIS & Pro rata payment to academics are diversions from our demands,” among others.
He said: “It has become conspicuously clear to the Union that Nigerian governments are not interested in the development of Nigerian public universities to global university best practice:
“What is obvious is the deliberate under-funding of the universities through the guise of no money, so as to subsequently introduce exorbitant school fees beyond the reach of the children of the masses, and ultimately privatize these universities to themselves.
“After suspending the 8 month old strike due to court order and interventions of well-meaning Nigerians, the government went so low to withhold salaries of ASUU members and only paid pro-rata the October salary. The Union rejects the casualization of Nigerian academics.
“The Union assures Nigerians that it will never be a party to destroying the country. The Union will never support the introduction of exorbitant fees beyond the reach of the children of the Nigerian downtrodden; neither will it be a party to privatizing Nigerian public universities,” he said.
He added that: “As a law abiding Union, ASUU deployed several diplomatic means to persuade the government to address the contentious issues in the public universities but all fell on deaf ears. Thereafter, just like on other occasions, the Union was left with no choice than to declare a nationwide strike on the 14th February, 2022 to drive home its demands. For the avoidance of doubt, the issues that necessitated the strike are:
“While the Union is struggling day and night to ensure that the government fulfills the agreement it willingly signed with the Union, the governments at State and Federal levels became politically obsessed with the establishment of public universities, even where it is evidently clear that the existing ones are grossly under-funded.
“More so, universities visitation panels, that statutorily afford Visitors of Universities (President/State governors) after every four years the opportunity to probe the management of the university operations in terms of finance, personnel, academic activities, and other matters were not conducted for over fifteen years: it took another ASUU strike in 2020 for the government to set up the visitation panels, but to date the white papers for the visitations are still being awaited.”
He appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the government to as a matter of urgency and national interest resolve all outstanding issues with ASUU for the wellbeing of the Nigerian nation so that the country will take its rightful place in the globe, pointing out that “for the avoidance of doubts, we wish to state clearly that we shall continue to defend the University system and the Nigerian State through all legitimate means, we cannot be cowed by tyrants.”
Also speaking, the Bauchi Zonal Coordinator, Prof. Lawan Abubakar, accused the federal government of systematic attempts to destroy public universities in Nigeria by allowing strikes to linger for a long time.
Abubakar who said that withholding salaries of its members and the pro rata payments are diversions by the government of the main issues, accused the government of provoking the last over seven months strike and allowing it to linger when they could have ended it within a short period of time by implementing agreements reached with the union.
“The Union resolved to go this way so that: we suspended the last strike having seen that it was the government that provoked the last strike in the first place, because it was not necessary after the 2020 strike because we have an MOA and there were timelines for the implementation.
“And during the implementation, the government just kicked it off and provoked the last strike. We believe that the last strike was not supposed to last long but the government deliberately allowed it to last for eight months.
“And the government came up with what it came up with after eight months when it could have done the same thing in February 2022. We have seen a systematic attempt to destroy the Nigerian public university system; and we thought that we are the most informed stakeholders and we said from ourselves that enough of the strike.
“And when government now continued with the provocation to the extent of paying the October pro rata salary, we went at the National Executive Council meeting and really affirmed to Nigerians what we will not join hands with these elements in government who want to create continues problems in the Nigerian public university system so that the private universities van thrive because as it is now, more than 95 percent of Nigerian students are still in public universities.”
The Zonal Coordinator added that: “The private universities are less than 5 percent and are enjoying while the public universities are running out of business, so they need to be protected by these elements in government because most of them have these private universities and most of them have seeming sinister motives to even privatize public universities; that is why some of them are situating federal universities in their villages so that they can quickly own and run them.
“So, we have seen that clearly and we don’t want to join hands with the government. We are seeking this option to impact pressure on the government. We acknowledge that there are well-meaning Nigerians who are intervening in this matter but their interventions are meeting some stumbling blocks, so we decided to push this further by ourselves.
“These issues that have to do with withholding salaries or pro rata payment and even the IPPIS are just diversionary, the core issues of our struggles are still there and those are the issues we intend to push and the government must come back to these issues. Government must sit with us and negotiate with them because the process of collective bargaining is legitimate and lawful and this government cannot just throw it away.”
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