ASUU Slams David Mark Over Onosode Comments, Asks Him To Make His Salary Public

University of Ibadan chapter of the
Academic Staff Union of Universities,
ASUU, has asked the Senate President,
David Mark to apologise to the leader of
Government negotiation with ASUU,
Deacon Gamaliel Onosode over alleged
disparaging comments.
This formed part of the resolutions of the
union at the end of a congress in the
institution, weekend, signed by the
chairman of the ASUU at the university,
Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye.
According to him, instead of the senator
condemning the leader of the government
delegation in 2009, the elder statesman
“deserved respect as a man of proven
integrity, and impeccable character,”
because of his pedigree.
While advising the Senate to be concerned
with the plight of Nigerian masses and
teach youths the sanctity of obeying
agreements, the union recalled that
President Goodluck Jonathan as the then
Vice President had instructed the
government team to sign the agreement.
Following discussion on the details of the
agreement on the floor of the Senate,
Mark was quoted to have said: “For those
who negotiated on behalf of the Federal
Government with ASUU in October 2009,
the facts made available to us today by
the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Education, Uche Chukwumerije, showed
that they are people who do not know
their right from their left and, in the
process, put the Federal Government into
the problem it is facing today, because
when the agreements were read out, I
thought they were mere proposals, only
for Chukwumerije to confirm that they
signed the largely unimplementable
agreements characterised by payment of
all manner of allowances.”
The union alleged that Senate President
acted ignorantly on the true position of the
2009 FGN/ASUU agreement even as a
sitting Senate President at the time.
“The vituperation of the Senate President
shows the character of those leading us
as unpatriotic and foreign to happenings
within the country”.
The union further challenged the senate
president to publish his salaries and
allowances to Nigerians.
“The Congress considered the personality
of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode, an alumnus
of the University College Ibadan, who has
served as the Chairman of Governing
councils of UI and UNILAG, a great
successful businessman who has served
the country in various intervention
capacities. The congress condemns these
disparaging comments and demands that
the Senate President apologises to this
elder statesman.
“Can we actually trust these characters to
midwife any intervention with a bias and
myopic construction myth makes right?
Where else in the world are senators
earning bogus allowances as we have in
the National Assembly? Salaries of
University lecturers have been by NUC,
we challenge the Revenue Allocation,
Mobilisation and Fiscal commission to
publish salaries and allowance of the
senate president David Mark for Nigerians
to see how patriotic he is to the true state
of the economy,” the UI chapter of the
union said.