Re: Beg ASUU, FG Can’t Borrow, Keyamo Tells Parents

Beg FG, to Place Their Priorities Right —Adesanya-Davies

In a post on August 6, 2022 by Our Reporters, “The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has called on Nigerian parents and guardians whose parents are affected by the ongoing shutdown of academic activities in government- owned universities to appeal to the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off the lingering strike; while Adesanya-Davies, “Begs FG, to Place Their Priorities Right.”

In response to the Minister’s plea and request, former Presidential Candidate Funmilayo Adesanya-Davies says, “It’s the FG Nigerians would need to beg to place their priorities right!”

For instance, would recall that, this week, “Conference of Nigeria Political Parties, CNPP, has expressed shock over the confirmation by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, that President Muhammadu Buhari approved the sum of N1,145,000,000.00 for the purchase of 10 Toyota Land Cruiser jeeps for Niger Republic at a time Nigerian students were on strike over inability of the Federal Government to meet the financial demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.”

Adesanya-Davies laments, “Why would the FG be busy funding the economic interests of other foreign nations despite the suffering of the masses, harsh economic and educational realities in Nigeria. This President is so adamantly unrealistic! Similarly, the Senate, the upper chamber and House of Representatives, the lower chamber), in Abuja as well as, House of Assembly members are busy enjoying the largesse of their armed-robbery salaries while Nigerian University students suffer,” she added.

ASUU had declared a nationwide strike on Monday, February 14, 2022. The strike, according to the union, was as a result of the failure of the government to meet some demands such as the release of the revitalisation funds for universities, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers, renegotiation of the ASUU-Federal Government 2009 agreement among others. Since the strike began, stakeholders had called on President Muhammadu Buhari to find a lasting solution to the strike and increase funding of tertiary institutions.

Featuring on a programme on Channels Television, Keyamo noted that the government had done its best and appealed to parents to “beg” ASUU. “The moment they went on strike, we intervened, what is the manner again beyond that? Even before the strike began, we called them to a meeting, what manner is more than that? It’s not like we left them to go on strike first and we were sleeping, as the talk started, they still went on strike.

Adesanya-Davies recalls, “Despite a two-day national protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress over the continued closure of public universities, the federal government has not changed its lacklustre approach to the implementation of an agreement it brokered with the universities.” She advises the FG to get the students back to Universities again as the situation has fast deteriorated and length of unending strike becoming rather ridiculous .”This is not a progressive government by any standard; ASUU crisis is an issue of national emergency,” she added.

She further explains, “Under Buhari alone, for instance, ASUU had embarked on strike action four times. In 2017, ASUU was on strike for one month. The union went on strike for three months in 2019, nine months in 2020 and its latest ongoing strike will enter its sixth month on August 14. This indicates that the public universities for about 20 months between 2017 and 2022, were closed.

Again, CNPP in a statement signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, queried the intentions, asking, “How can Nigeria be fighting insecurity in another country while we are breeding insecurity at home by keeping energetic young Nigerians hopeless and idle for over five months due to ASUU strike?”

Describing the purchase of 10 vehicles for Niger Republic as a gesture that “amounts to unclothing Peter to clothe Paul”, the CNPP insisted that “the action is most insensitive to the continued suffering of Nigerian citizens who have not been able to have three square meals on the table in the last seven years of President Buhari administration.”

The CNPP then urged the National Assembly to waste no time in impeaching the President for funding a foreign country under the guise of improvements in her security logistics but failed to tackle insecurity at home, seeing that the vehicles in question were not security patrol vans but executive SUV jeeps.

“The six weeks ultimatum issued to Mr. President to tackle internal security should be cut short immediately as the Senate must now reconvene as a matter of urgency to commence the impeachment proceedings without further delay”, the CNPP demanded.

“This is more so when the Academic Staff Union of Universities declared a “comprehensive and total” strike on February 14, 2022 and the presidential approval was made on February 22, eight clear days after the indefinite strike.

“Secondly, at the height of insecurity in the country, contract to supply the 10 units of Toyota Land Cruisers was awarded while the Nigerian police lack operational vehicles and other necessary equipment to carry out internal security operations.

“Today, the military, which traditionally has no business with internal security has been drafted deal with ordinary unarmed protesters when we have police units that were trained to manage riotous crowds in a civil manner.

“Despite the harsh economic realities Nigeria, the President is also funding the economic interests of the same foreign entity through the $1.96 billion 284km rail project connecting Kano in Nigeria to Maradi in Niger Republic.

“The CNPP therefore calls on all Nigerians to take note of the level of insensitivity and maladministration of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, federal government and do the needful in 2023 as the country cannot survive another eight years of an APC government from next year”, the statement concluded.

The closure of public universities entered its 167th day today. By implication, students of these public institutions have been at home for five months and 17 days. Yet, this never occupies a prime place in the priority of the federal government to resolve the dispute as urgently as it could.

Rather, its principal negotiators – the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige – keep going back and forth, rejecting the reports of its own renegotiation committees and setting up new ones as though public universities had lost their relevance in national development.

This situation has prompted the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress (TUC) and their affiliates to embark upon a two-day national protest to solidarise with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU), Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) that had been on strike since February 14.

To know that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wants to continue in office in 2023 despite these obvious flaws, baffles many Nigerians. It’s so sad!