The Federal Government has directed the
Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed
Abubakar, to deploy policemen to all federal
universities in the country in its bid to
ensure resumption of academic activities in
universities on or before December 4.
Saturday PUNCH learnt this development was
disclosed at an emergency meeting the
Federal Government held with all vice-
chancellors of federal universities at the
National Universities Commission building in
Abuja on Friday. The Acting Minister of
Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the
Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Julius
Okojie, were also at the meeting.
Though Friday’s meeting was held behind
closed door, a source at the meeting who
craved anonymity because he was not
authorised to speak with the press, told
Saturday PUNCH that the Federal
Government directed the IG to draft
policemen to federal universities to prevent
members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities from disturbing some of their
members that might want to resume work in
line with government’s directive.
The meeting, Saturday PUNCH further learnt,
also discussed other modalities for calling
off the bluff of ASUU whose members have
been on strike for over five months.
The Friday meeting began at 9am and lasted
for two hours. Part of the meeting’s
deliberations, Saturday PUNCH gathered, also
centred on how to recruit new lecturers to fill
the space of ASUU members who might refuse
to obey government’s directive. Also, the
vice-chancellors were directed to call students
back to campus on Sunday in preparation for
academic activities which should start on
Monday.
Wike, had on Thursday ordered lecturers to
resume duties on or before December 4 or
face being sacked summarily by the Federal
Government.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that already Okojie
had been mandated to start the process of
recruiting new lecturers by placing vacancy
adverts in international journals and media.
Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to
open registers in their institutions where
ASUU members that resume work would sign
so that those who failed to resume could be
sacked.
Saturday PUNCH further learnt that the
Federal Government was planning to adopt the
Ghanaian method where lecturers were asked
to re-apply for their jobs after two years of
strike.
“Not all lecturers are members of ASUU. Most
professors don’t belong to the union, people
think every lecturer in public university is a
member of ASUU, which is not true.
Government means business this time around
and it is going to call off the bluff of ASUU,’’
the source explained.
Nigerian universities are currently in need of
at least 30,000 lecturers because of acute
shortage of lecturers in the university
system..
There are also indications that the Federal
Government and university lecturers may be
heading for a clash as the December 4
deadline given by the Federal Government for
the lecturers to return to work is also the
date set aside by ASUU to bury a former
President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi.
Iyayi died in a ghastly auto accident along the
Abuja-Lokoja Road when the vehicle in which
he was travelling had a collision with the
convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State
on November 12, 2013.
The former ASUU chairman was on his way to
Kano to attend a crucial meeting of the union
which was called to deliberate on the Federal
Government’s offer to the lecturers.
The Federal Government had claimed it
decided to go tough on ASUU because the
union made fresh demands in its letter to the
government as a condition for calling off the
lingering strike action.
ASUU had demanded payment of the four-
month salary arrears of its members from July
when the strike commenced and the release
of N200bn that President Goodluck Jonathan
promised to inject into the university system
within the next two weeks.
The union also said the agreement reached
between it and the Federal Government
should be signed by the Minister of Justice
and the Attorney General of the Federation.
Though the President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir
Faggae, refused to pick his calls and also did
not respond to a text message sent to him on
the latest development, the Enugu State
Police Command confirmed that its men had
been directed to man universities to quell
any protest that might result from the Federal
Government’s order on lecturers to resume
work on or before Wednesday.
The command told Saturday PUNCH that
police officers had also been directed to be
stationed at the universities to forestall any
disturbance from various groups or lecturers
on Monday.
“There is no cause for alarm and we are
combat ready in the event of any violence or
disturbance,” the Police Public Relations
Officer in the state, Mr. Ebere Amaraizu, said.
Also, the Police Public Relations Officer, Akwa
Ibom State Command, Mr. Etim Dickson,
confirmed that the police had been mandated
to provide security for lecturers that want to
resume work against molestation by their
other colleagues, who may not want them to
do so.
“We are not going to their houses to force
them to come and teach in the universities.
Even though the Federal Government has
taken a stance, we are not in the military rule
to molest lecturers,” he said.
But reacting to the latest development, the
Chairman, ASUU, UNIBEN chapter, Emina-
Monye, said ASUU members were not
bothered about government’s latest
strategy.
He said, “They can go ahead with that. We are
not perturbed. Let them call the police; let
them advertise vacant positions and see how
many international scholars will want to
accept what Nigerian university lecturers are
taking- let them go ahead.”
Also, ASUU branch at the University of Uyo,
Akwa Ibom State, said government’s directive
was an attempt to waste students’ time.
The UNIUYO ASUU Chairman, Dr. Nwachukwu
Anyim, said in Uyo on Friday that Nigeria was
no longer in a military era and so lecturers
could not be coerced by anybody to work
against their wish. He said, We will see how
they will come to our homes and force us to
resume work.
“Only the Federal Government can tell the
world what it has in mind. We have a
shortfall of 60,000 lecturers in the university
system. If they are advertising this one, it
means they must have an idea of where they
are going to put them, and they must be
people who are going to work without
equipment.”
However, the University of Nigeria chapter of
ASUU on Friday said its members would not
resume work until their demands are met.
The UNN-ASUU also described the Minister of
Education, Wike, as a “tout”.
The union, however, told Saturday PUNCH
that it won’t react officially to Wike’s order
until President Goodluck Jonathan speaks.
“We have not heard from the President, so we
cannot speak officially on the matter. It
would be senseless to begin to react to a
statement from Wike since he is a tout,” said
Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, Chairman of UNN-ASUU.
Abada said that Wike’s order cannot hold and
vowed that ASUU would unleash terror if the
minister attempts to carry out the order.
“We stopped the late General Sani Abacha, so
stopping Wike and these bloody civilians
won’t be any problem to us,” Abada vowed.
Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday
described the action of Wike as hasty.
The Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr.
Chris Uyot, said in a telephone interview with
one of our correspondents that Wike ought to
have considered the circumstances that
delayed the leadership of ASUU from getting
their resolutions to the government.
Uyot said that ASUU was not able to get the
resolutions of the NEC meeting to the Federal
Government because of the death of Iyayi.
Reacting to the latest development, Mr Femi
Falana [SAN], said President Goodluck
Jonathan should call Wike to order in the
interest of the education system..
.He said If Wike had familiarised himself with
FG/ASUU face-off in the past two decades,
even under the defunct military junta, he
would have discovered that ASUU members
had never been cowed to submission.
He said, “In 1992, the Ibrahim Babangida
junta fired all lecturers and threatened to
eject them from their official quarters. When
the lecturers defied the junta a decree was
promulgated which made strike by teachers a
treasonable felony. ASUU also ignored the
obnoxious decree and called off the bluff of
the military dictators. But at the end of the
day it became clear to the regime that
universities could not be run like military
barracks. Hence the junta swallowed its pride,
withdrew its empty threats and decided to
honour the Agreement which it had rejected.’’


SOURCE: www.punchng.com/news/fg-deploys-policemen-to-federal-universities

Let the show begin

As the war between light and darkness
continues
Heroes and villains become harder to identify
Kindred spirits separated at birth
Fighting for their place in time to be solidified
The clock ticks faster and faster
While time runs a marathon in this babylon
But see, the end is only the beginning
The beginning of the calm before the storm

Well let me comment my reserve... Will this forcefully bring the lecturers back to class?

foolish.idiots ASSHOLES

foolish.idiots ASSHOLES.u always win thats y u always cause trouble.Its time to loose

I'm wondering where all those greedy state universities ASUU members stand now, cos FG didn't even recognize them as ASUU members talkless of giving damn about them...they frivolously denied their students right to education for 5months in the name of 'sympathy strike'. What a nefarious act.

This is where I would agree that the strike being politicized, if not what are the state governors waiting for? Can't they order their employees back to work?