ASUU Chairman, UNILAG Chapter, Dr. Dele Ashiru on Wednesday reacted to President Buhari’s ‘Enough Is Enough’ comment on the ongoing strike calling it insensitive.
The ASUU chairman stated that despite the President’s directions to the Chief of Staff, Ministers of Education, Finance, and Labour to end the protracted strike, nothing has been done, describing it as ineffective governance.
Dr. Ashiru remarked on TVC’s Breakfast show on Wednesday that “Enough Cannot Be Enough and Enough Will Not Be Enough” unless ASUU’s core demands are met.
“I believe the President is merely adding to Nigerians’ revolutionary vocabulary because it is past time for Nigerians to inform these governments and their agencies that ‘Enough Is Enough.'”
He bemoaned the fact that the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, which was reached one month ago and is one of ASUU’s principal demands, had not been considered.
“Up to now, the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, which is one of our union’s principal demands, had been concluded one month ago, the first by the Munzali Jubril led federal govt team since May, 2020, the second by the Nimi-Briggs committee, which is one month old and awaiting presidential approval, and to hear that same president, on a sallah day, in the most uncoordinated manner saying enough is enough, of what?
“Enough will be enough if our agreement is signed, and a new payment platform is deployed.
“We are in a country, where we should rather be telling the president and his government that enough is enough”.
The president, who just ordered the testing of all three payment methods in contention, abruptly announced, ‘Enough Is Enough,’ without checking to see how far his lieutenants had carried out his orders, from the blues, in an uncoordinated manner, said ‘Enough Is Enough’
“If we are in a serious country, nobody should be talking about IPPIS as we speak, the accountant general of the federation who is the generalisimo of IPPIS is languishing in EFCC custody on account of a 170 billion theft, which is the one we know,” he added.
On the implementation of the DEC 2020 memorandum of action, which implemented 5 of the 7 concerns identified, he stated that 22.2 billion was received as end academic allowances, and 30 billion was also received, but those were not the core demands of ASUU.
“Yes! monies were paid to the system but we have to put it in context, there is a way this kind of narrative and government propaganda deviates core issues from the fundamental issues. All of these items are mere symptom of a deeper malady”.
“Our core demands are that the 2009 agreement be renegotiated and will be taken out of the now very discredited and fraudulent IPPIS scheme and deploying UTAS which was at the instance of government.
We gave an alternative, UTAS, because of the flexibility, user friendly, transparent and accountable nature of the platform, but govt refused to deploy it.
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“End Academic allowance flowed from the 2009 agreement. Government is still in default of two tranches due since 2020 in that same MOA. If you are owing a people, four tranches of end Academic allowances and you pay two, we still have outstanding. The 30billion revitalisation fund is aprt of the 1.1 trillion alluded to. can you say that is a meaningful achievement or satisfied a condition.
“All of these revitalisations were consequences of the refusal of government to renegotiate the2009 ASUU-FGN agreement. Our belief is that, if govt had kept faith with the terms of that agreement by reviewing it every three years, all of these backlogs would have become unnecessary.
Dr. Ashiru denied the government’s assertion that UTAS failed the integrity test, claiming that the platform scored 99.3 percent in tests conducted by the National Information Technology Development Agency, NiTDA.
“The problem is that UTAS had become politicised because of our union’s principled opposition to the fraudulent professorship given to the minister of communication and digital, Isa Pantami.
“I was physically present when UTAS was being tested at the NiTDA headquarters, i witnessed the proceedings. I was taken aback when i heard Pantami said, UTAS failed at a FEC meeting.
“The technical committee of NiTDA were full of commendation for our members who developed UTAS. They agreed that this was the first time that a home grown, wholly, local content solution is being so robust user friendly, flexible, dynamic, and transparent” he added.
The platform established by Ngige from other university unions is also being assessed, according to Dr. Ashiru. He argued that the test results of the program should be publicised and compared to the UTAS system.
“All payment arrangements in the University system were considered when building UTAS”.
On the Wale Babalakin committee, which began renegotiation in 2018, and the other committee set up by Professor Nimi Briggs, which elected not to work with the FG, the UNILA ASUU Chairman stated, “The agreement has not been renegotiated.”
“There were terms to renegotiate it under the FG team led by Wale Babalakin, unfortunately, he was not able to accomplish much until he was kicked out of UNILAG’s governing council, and once you are no longer a pro chancellor, you can no longer sit as a negotiator with government,” he continued.
“That was what brought in the Munzali Jubril committee. He worked as a former executive secretary of the NUC and very contentiously with our union.
“We got a draft in may 2020, that was awaiting govt’s review and pass it on to our union but that document was kept in the coolers.
“No amount should be too large to educate Nigerians.” The budget of the national assembly, which has only approximately 410 members, is larger than the budget for all of education.
On if ASUU was pursuing its own agenda?
According to Dr. Ashiru, ASUU is a labor union, not a government. “Our union is the most patriotic and influential trade union in the country.
“There are recommendations in the draft agreement on how to support education in a seamless manner, but we have a ruling elite that does not read, and when they do read on their behalf, they direct their attention to only those things that people reading on their behalf would benefit from.”
“Tetfund that is now the cash cow of government was the brain child of ASUU. We have demonstrated that, over and over again. There are fresh initiatives in the last document about how to raise funds for education.
“The problem of education in Nigeria is beyond the Berekete crowd funding. It is an unsustainable approach. We have a fundamental trade dispute with government, the issues go beyond pecuniary gains.
Money is necessary, but ASUU requires far more. It is a constitutional requirement that the government take the lead in the education of its population.
Dr. Ashiru stated that the renegotiation which is the major bone of contention had been concluded, what is awaited is for the president to look into the draft, recommendation.https://www.tvcnews.tv/2022/07/police-arrest-escaped-kuje-custodial-centre-inmate-in-ogun/
The three platforms are being tested; UTAS has been tested, and the government-initiated platform has also been tested. The IPPIS was supposed to be tested last week, but due to the baggage it bears, it cannot be finalised due to the complexities involved.
The UNILAG ASUU Chairman finished by adding that the current scenario is so dire that no student wants to be a lecturer after they graduate.
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