ASUU strike: Nigerian government accuses university lecturers of being unrealistic

The Federal Government on Wednesday
chided university lecturers, ASUU, over
their ongoing indefinite strike; saying if all
sectors of government decide to down
their tools until all their problems are
solved, the country would shut down.
The Minister of Information, Labaran
Maku, gave the government’s position on
Wednesday while briefing journalists at
the end of the weekly meeting of the
Executive Council of the Federation, FEC,
in Abuja.
“This country belongs to all of us, if we all
insist that every sector problem must be
completely solved, we will down tools we
will not work, then the country will stop
working,” he said.
“If we say because of every particular
problem we face in this country we will
not work until it is resolved, then I’m sure
there is no sector that will work.”
The minister directed his remarks to
university lecturers, ASUU, who have
been on a nationwide strike for over two
months; insisting government implements
a 2009 agreement it had with the union.
“We are partners with ASUU, we are
friends. They are our patriots and we
understand the critical role that the
universities teachers are doing to create a
new society that we are hoping to have.
“But at the same time, this is a reality
question that we need to look at and we
have to put the nation first,” he said.
Mr. Maku, who said the federal
government has spent a lot on the
development of tertiary education across
the country, appealed to the lecturers to
have a rethink on its demands by
considering the fact that there are many
other competing demands from other
sectors.
He said outside of security, education is
one of the sectors the government had
expended a lot of money on.
“I know all of us desire more from the
system but the truth is that there are
limitations and from the limitations we
have, we believe that ASUU really needs to
do rethink and ensure that we reopen our
universities because really we are feeling
the pain of our children being at home
and this indeed is completely avoidable,”
he said.
“Don’t forget that in 2010 we announced
a 53.4 per cent increase on public salaries
across board which affected all people in
the public service, that has still left a huge
deficit in the annual budget of the country.
“I just want to say that it is unfortunate
that our students are still at home. It is
very sad because the federal government
has done so much in the last three years
for education.”
The minister mentioned the completion of
37 projects in University of Benin, multiple
on-going projects in the University of Port
Harcourt and University of Jos, as well as
many polytechnics and colleges of
education as some of the actions of the
federal government in the education
sector.
“Government has priorities. Education
remains number one priority and will
continuously remain the number one
priority of a developing country like
Nigeria. There is no way we can avoid it,
the quality of human capital is going to
determine the future of our country. But at
the same time, when you look at the
environment today, we are dealing with
the question of power, railway that had
broken down how years,” the minister
added.
“We are dealing with the issues of roads,
of creating the enabling environment for
industries to prosper. There is no area
today that you touch that you do not have
major urgency for government to deal
with.”
“There is no government at this time that
is funding education the way we are
funding, we will continue to do more as
funds come. This is aside from the N100
billion that president has set aside to
address some the infrastructure deficits in
the university system. So it is our
responsibility but when you look at this
nation at the moment and you look at the
various challenges that we have had to
confront in the last two years including
insecurity that is induced in some
northern states. The money we have
spent dealing with Boko Haram and other
avoidable crisis that have been generated
could in fact provide all the infrastructure
for universities but we have to address
them.”
In her statement, the Minister of
Education, Ruqayyat Rufa’i, said the
government already made its stance
clear. She accused ASUU of portraying
the federal government in a bad light by
claiming the government was unwilling to
implement the 2009 agreement.
Ms. Rufa’i said ASUU should take the
initiative to address some of the issues it
wants the government to resolve.
Some of the demands of the university
lecturers include increased budgetary
allocation to education sector up to 26 per
cent, payment of Earned Academic
Allowances to lecturers, and provision of
critical infrastructure to universities.
Many of the demands were resolved in an
agreement signed between the federal
government and ASUU in 2009. However,
while ASUU demands a full
implementation of the agreement, the
government said it cannot implement all
and is seeking a re-negotiation of some
part of the agreement.