Plans are underway by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to stage a national protest against the ongoing strike by university workers. The protest could, however, snowball into a nationwide down tool, if government’s inaction continues.

A communique issued at the end of its Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting in Abuja did not specify when the protest would commence.

NLC President Ayuba Wabba and General Secretary Emma Ugboajah signed the communique.

“The protest is to draw the attention of government to the inherent catastrophe in the emerging culture of social apartheid in our society, especially as marked by prolonged lockout of students from working class and poor homes, while children of the rich continue their academic pursuits uninterrupted.”

Congress said: “If at the end of the national protest and the 21-day ultimatum, the Federal Government still fails to resolve the industrial crises in Nigeria’s universities, the Congress would be left with no other option but to embark on a three-day nationwide warning strike action, in solidarity with our affiliates in the universities and with Nigerian students whose future and wellbeing are being robbed.”

The meeting called on the governments of Taraba, Cross River and Zamfara States to immediately commence payment of the arrears of national minimum wage owed their workers. It also called on the Abia State government to immediately clear the backlog of pension arrears owed.


ASUU







Adelaja Odukoya, the (ASUU) Lagos zone’s coordinator has stated that enough will not be enough until President Muhammadu Buhari does the needful and act presidentially by signing the renegotiated agreement among others.

Odukoya disclosed this on Tuesday, July 12, via his Twitter handle while responding to President Buhari’s statement ‘enough is enough’, urging striking university lecturers to call off their strike.

“Sadly Mr. President, enough will not be enough until you do the needful and act presidentially by signing the renegotiated agreement before your excellence authorise the end ruinous, evil and exploitative Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and the adoption of University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS),” Odukoya said

He also asked Buhari to pay outstanding allowances, stop the proliferation of universities, and ensure the proper funding of public universities.

The ASUU zonal leader pointed out that the reason enough cannot be enough as far as the union’s strike is concerned is because President Buhari has failed to act in his capacity as the president to reposition the decaying and dying public university education in Nigeria.

Odukoya stated that Nigerian lecturers remain some of the poorest paid scholars not only in Africa, but the world.

“Our universities are unattractive to students and scholars from the globe; universities in the country are made constituency projects and mushroomed for political exigencies; Nigeria universities, no thanks to IPPIS are run as government parastatals, Nigeria universities are seen as profit-centres where government functionaries can obtain money to fund its executive gastrominal greed,” he noted

Besides, the president allowed agents of the government to intimidate and oppress the lecturers for demanding what is supposed to be their right.

“This struggle too shall continue despite the state tyrannical disposition which has since manifested in the use of starvation as an instrument of oppression and subjugation against our members by the refusal to pay our salaries in the last five months,” he stated.

Odukoya, however, regretted the pains the strike has caused many Nigerian students, and families, but explained that the industrial action was induced by the federal government’s nonchalant attitude and indifference to the demands of ASUU, hence, failing to nip it in the bud.

“It is with painful and heartfelt amusement that we received your comical statement and laughable call yesterday that “enough is enough” on the almost five month old strike action of our union; ASUU occasioned and forced on us by the crass insensitivity, nonchalant disposition, ineptitude and crass indifference to the face of public university education in the country under your leadership.

“That all other unions in the nation’s public university system as well as unions in other tertiary educational levels in the country are also on strike for similar reasons belied and exposed the ridiculous disposition and propaganda to paint our union black in the face of the Nigerian public who has seen through the shenanigan, deliberate systematic and orchestrated agenda of the present government.

“This is not only to undermine but to comprehensively destroy public university education in unpatriotic obedience to the slavish and destructive command of the neoliberal high command to which the soul of this administration and its forbears seems to be irrevocably sold.

“The fact that the president unfortunately and sadly taken and embraced an attitude of mute indifference and unedifying quietude in the face of calamitous consequences a neglected education sector could foist on generations of Nigeria, including those yet unborn is a clear signpost of leadership failure,” he said.

He called on the federal government to be prepared to pay the needed sacrifices rather than global junketing, family egoistic ceremonies and partisan political activities.

“Mr. President sir, for ASUU, this strike action should not have lasted beyond the first week after it was declared, because the issues at stake were neither new nor do they require rocket science to resolve given that they had been MoUs and MoAs as well as a duly renegotiated ASUU-FG agreement completed way back in May 13, 2020 before your government which you and your administration neglected and refused to implement and signed,” he noted.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has disagreed with the Vice the acting Vice-Chancellor of Kaduna State University (KASU), Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa over the plan to re-open the institution.

KASU, like most other public owned universities in Nigeria has been under lock and key in the past five months over strike by university lecturers under the aegis of ASUU.


But Prof. Ashafa told the News Agency of Nigeria in an interview on Friday that KASU will will reopen on July 13, to enable its final year students to write their examinations and graduate.

Ashafa, added that the state government planned to provide foreign scholarships to students with outstanding Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA).

He said that the students, in substantial numbers, upon graduation, would be sent abroad for their masters’ degree.

The VC added that the Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with two African universities, where the students would be admitted.


He said that the admission processes would be closed in September and the students had not written their second semester examination because of the protracted industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

“As parents, we thought that we should fast track the resumption process so that the students can write their examinations, obtain their results, and submit to the scholarship board to process their admissions,” he said.

He said that the school management have resolved, after a meeting with critical managers of the university, to reopen on July 13, with the second semester examination scheduled to commence July 25.


The VC explained that critical managers of the university, which include Deans and HODs shoulder the affairs of teaching and research in the university.

“The Deans and HODs are the critical managers of the university whose subordinates will have to be engaged to conduct the examination, supervise, and process the results.

“It is on this basis we are confident that we will be able to convince the state government to pay staff salaries that have been withheld,” he said

He appealed to the leadership of ASUU, KASU branch, to understand with the university for the sake of the students, so that they can graduate and benefit from the available opportunity for foreign scholarships.


Ashafa recalled that the previous management of the university had attempted a dialogue with the leadership of the university’s chapter of ASUU but yielded no result because of the frosty relationship.

He revealed that the current management had directed that the query issues to some executive members of the union should be withdrawn.

The VC, on behalf of the management and the university Senate, apologised to the leadership of ASUU over the incident.

He also called on the students to return to school and continue with their studies, adding that no students would be prevented from writing examinations on account of failure to pay school fees.

The VC explained that after the increase in school fees in 2021, only about 25 per cent of the students made full payment, while some made part payment and others could not pay anything.

“We will not stop any student from writing the examination, even if the person has not paid the school fees.

“What we will do is that the affected students will not see their results and will not be allowed to register for the next academic session.


“However, the Executive Secretary of State Scholarship and Loans Board, Mr Rilwan Hassan, had told us that Gov. Nasir El-Rufai has approved N500 million to pay the school fees of certain categories of students.”

NAN recalls that the state government in April 2021 increased the university’s school fees between N24,000 and N26,000 to N150,000 and N500,000.

But Chairman of ASUU in the university, Dr Peter Adamu, said he was not aware of the plan to reopen the university on July 13 by KASU management.

“In fact, I am just hearing this from you, and I want to make it categorically clear that we are not a party to this arrangement,” Adamu said. (NAN)


Tags: ASUU Kaduna State University (KASU) Prof. Abdullahi Ashafa


CREDITS: PM NEWS

Medical lecturers in the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, under the aegis of the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria,  UMTH branch, have demanded the release of their withheld salaries by the federal government.

The lecturers, in a letter addressed to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, and the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said they were not part of the ongoing industrial action embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU) since February 14, 2022, and were therefore demanding the immediate release of their withheld salaries from March to June 2022.

The medical lecturers stated that they have been patriotically doing their work, which includes teaching, training, and conducting examinations for medical students throughout the period of the ongoing strike. They further reminded the ministers of their earlier letter in March 2022, where they had informed them of their resolve to remain at work, notwithstanding the strike declared by ASUU.

This they said was done in case the Federal Government decided to stop the salaries of ASUU members.

It was gathered that medical lecturers in the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, ATBUTH, Bauchi, and Usman Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital, UDUTH, Sokoto had also pulled out of the strike.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has challenged the federal government to accept the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) payment platform for it to call off the ongoing strike.

ASUU national president, Prof. Emmanuel Osedeke, who said this while speaking on Channels Television on Monday night, said the strike will continue unless government accept UTAS and honour the 2009 agreement.

It would be recalled that the ASUU strike action, which started on February 14, 2022 has entered 140th day this Monday.

ASUU has been at loggerheads with the federal government, citing the refusal of the latter to honour the 2009 agreement it entered with the Union.

Its demands in the agreements include condition of service of University lecturers to be reviewed every five years, issue of salaries and allowances, revitalisation of public universities, among other issues, University Transparency Accountability Solution and the inconsistencies in the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) payment platform.

Osodeke said, “Let government tell us they have finished testing the UTAS and sign the agreement, then tomorrow we will call off the strike.

“We challenge the government, when would they sign the agreement? When would they accept UTAS? These are the two questions we should ask Nigerian government,” he stated.


NECO postpones entrance examinations into Varsity's.

The National Examination Council (NECO) has postponed the National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) entrance examination into the 104 unity colleges established and operated by the Nigerian government.

The culture of sudden postponement of the examination has been practised by the examination body in the last couple of years, as a way of encouraging “states with low registration of candidates the opportunity to register their candidates”



In a statement on Wednesday, Azeez Sani, NECO’s head of the information and public relations division, said the examination, earlier scheduled for Saturday, 23rd April has been moved to Saturday, 7th May 2022.


The statement read in parts: “The National Examinations Council (NECO) has rescheduled the 2022 National Common Entrance Examination (NCEE) which is conducted for admission into Federal Unity Colleges from 23rd April 2022 to 7th May 2022.


“The Examination was rescheduled to give states with low registration of candidates the opportunity to register their candidates for the examination.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has used a total of 1,423 days to go on strike since the inception of this democratic dispensation in 1999.

This means the Body(ASUU) has used almost 4 years to boycott classes to press there Demands on the Federal Government

Reports says that the strike declared by the Academic Staff Union of Universities entered its 140th day on Monday (today), while the strike declared by the Joint Action Committee of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and other Allied Institutions, which began on March 25, 2022 also entered the 68th day today.

While the National Executive Council of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics is currently meeting in Jigawa State after calling off a two-week warning strike, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union just commenced a two-month strike.

In a statement made available to journalists on Sunday, SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, noted that the government’s failure to meet ASUU’s demands, implement the agreement it had with the union and satisfactorily resolve the issues, has kept poor Nigerian children at home while the children of the country’s politicians attend private schools.

Oluwadare said, “Inequalities in education have a rolling effect, leading to even more and continued inequalities in the future.

“Apart from being a right in itself, the right to education is also an enabling right. Education creates the voice through which rights can be claimed and protected, and without education, people lack the capacity to achieve valuable functioning as part of the living.

“If people have access to education, they can develop the skills, capacity and confidence to secure other rights. Education gives people the ability to access information detailing the range of rights that they hold together with the government’s obligations.”


The workers of the Adeyemi University of Education, Ondo, Ondo State have declared that the campus of the institution would not have peace if the Federal Government fails to appoint a vice chancellor for the institution.

The workers had earlier protested the alleged failure of the Federal Government to appoint a vice chancellor after the institution had been upgraded to a university from a College of Education status. The non-teaching staff unions of the school – the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education of Nigeria, the National Association of Academic Technologists of Nigeria and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities Associated Institutions, vowed to continue the protest until the federal government heeds their call.

The protesters disclosed that the current Provost of the school, Dr Samuel Akintunde, had been given another term of four years to be provost instead of appointing a VC. The action, they said, was to retain the institution’s status as a college of education. One of the leaders of the protesters and leader of the Senior Staff Union of Colleges of Education of Nigeria of the institution, Comrade Obeyo Cletus, said the federal government had refused to regard the institution as a university six months after it had been upgraded as the principal officers have not been appointed, particularly the vice chancellor.

He said , “We are here as teaching staff of this institution. Since January this year that the university has been upgraded and gazetted to be a university, we have not got a vice chancellor. We are telling the government that we need our university; we need our vice chancellor. Enough is enough. “The head of this institution now is a provost and a provost cannot head a university. Everything we are doing here amount to illegality, because we are not a university yet without a vice chancellor. We have written letters to all stakeholders about the matter and in one month time and nothing is being done, there would be no peace on this campus.” The three unions in a congress held after the protest accused the governing council of the Adeyemi College of Education of frustrating the process of taking off of the university despite the signing of the bill that upgraded the institution into law by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).

The communique read in part, “The position of the governing council is working against the stand of the Federal Government of Nigeria as indicated in the university gazette. The governing council is hereby challenged to have negated the Federal Government of Nigeria’s position. The unions observed with dismay that the governing council concealed information from members of staff as regards the university status and used that to reappoint the College Provost and Registrar to torpedo the take-off of the University, despite that Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, is no longer in existence by law. “The act of the Governing Council was illegal and dereliction of functions. The official gazette empowers the governing council to still continue in office as the council of the university but not as Council of College of Education. Hence, such provision negates the decision of the governing council to re-appoint the provost and the registrar for a second term in office when there is no more College of Education.”

Also, in the communique, the congress gave the FG 30 days ultimatum to ensure “immediate take-off of the university as established by the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (the university should have taken off since December 23, 2021 when accented into Law by President Muhammadu Buhari).” They also called for the ” immediate reversal of the reappointment of the provost and the college registrar for a second term. The official gazette should be fully implemented with immediate effect. The Federal Government of Nigeria should honour her laws and act accordingly.”

CREDIT: THE PUNCH


 



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NEW MUSIC - JHEFFO - ALONE


Erhun-Osunbor Jefferson (born 19 SEPTEMBER 2001) aka JHEFFO who was formerly known as stoneblinz, is an Afro- singer, song writer and performing artiste is set to storm the Nigerian music industry with his new debut single titled “ALONE”.

Erhun-Osunbor Jefferson formerly known as Stoneblinkz now known as JHEFFO was born in ketu Lagos State, and hails from Edo State Nigeria. He is the last born from the family of 5.

Jheffo is set drop his single titled (Alone) and will be released on the 12th of March 2022.
Alone is produced mixed and mastered by dawieonthis1.

Source : Instagram.com/jheffo

Jheffo’s goal is to constantly do the necessary to improve his potentials so as to better his craft, this craft he believes is good enough to make him a super star.
For reach out kindly feel free to go follow him on IG @iamjheffo, twitter @iamjheffo.
Kindly stream, listen, share and enjoy this lovely sound via the link below.