•Says public-funded education remains last hope for poor Nigerians
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, maintained that it will continue to fight for the interest of her members in federal and state universities to get better conditions of service and improve access to quality education for the children of the masses.
ASUU also described as an unfortunate view of enemies of public-funded university in Nigeria the statement credited to the pro-chancellor of Osun State University, Mallam Yusuf Alli that it would be wrong for the federal Government to negotiate with ASUU and force implementation on state varsities.
ASUU stated that Nigerian academics could not be asked to earn by their performance when basic infrastructures for teaching and research had not been available, including funding for research.
The Ibadan zone of the ASUU, in a release jointly signed by the Zonal Coordinator, Prof Oyebamiji O. Oyegoke, and Prof. Ayoola Akinwole (UI), Prof. Moyosore Ajao (UNILORIN), Prof. Biodun Olaniran (LAUTECH), Dr. Shehu Salau (KWASU)and Dr. Wande Olaosebikan (UNIOSUN), stated that it was also surprised that the UNIOSUN pro-chancellor was unaware that pro-chancellors had always been part of the negotiations.
In his address at a press conference to herald the 6th biennial conference of Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities in Nigeria, COPSUN, the UNIOSUN pro-chancellor, Mallam Alli had said: “It is quite unfortunate that all the negotiations done so far with ASUU have been within the Federal Government and union. Our organisation has never been involved, and that is part of the problems. How does the Federal Government negotiate with ASUU, only to come and force their agreement on those that are not a party to it?”
The Union stated that asking a responsible body like ASUU to negotiate with councils which could not develop basic infrastructures in their respective varsities showed a capitalist mindset of people who would want the children of the masses to be denied access to quality public education as well as enslave lecturers in such varsities.
As a way of educating the UNIOSUN pro-chancellor, the Union said the former Pro-Chancellor of UNILAG, Wale Babalakin, was appointed to negotiate with ASUU and brought capitalist ideology to the table on privatising public funded education which ASUU resisted.
ASUU further stated that even the so-called 2022 inaugurated reconstituted committee to negotiate with ASUU by the Federal Government was made up of Pro-Chancellors from the geopolitical zones of the country.
Wondering where UNIOSUN Pro-Chancellor thought the TETFUND projects which have improved its infrastructure would have come from if not from ASUU patriotic struggles, the Professor Oyebamiji-led Ibadan Zone of the Union also stated that all state varsities, including UNIOSUN, had benefited from revitalization funds so far released by federal government due to the struggles and inclusive negotiation of ASUU.
“The Pro-Chancellor and chairman of council, Osun State University, Mallam Yusuf Alli, by his statement that ‘it is wrong for the Federal Government of Nigeria to negotiate with ASUU,’ is a regurgitation of non-practicable views of some detractors of public university in Nigeria.
“Like ASUU has pointed out severally, these are words that do not take the social and economic issues of the Nigerian state into realistic consideration. How can he say councils that cannot develop infrastructure in university except through ASUU agitation for university revitalisation and intervention of TETFUND should be negotiating workers’ salary?”, it said.
ASUU added that it would continue to resist any attempt to “further pauperise lecturers and subject them to the whims and caprices of chairmen of council who are tools in the hands of governors.”
“No one can shy away from the fact that some state universities struggle to pay their staff salaries. Imagine if they are left to negotiate it! Osun State University presently does not have the capacity to negotiate with ASUU and he should desist from suggesting confusing narrative on public university in Nigeria. Emphasis should be on the improved access and quality of university education rather that merely talking about educational policies in developed economies engendered by sustainable investment absent in Nigeria.”
