Date Published: 08/12/09

ASUU Strike. F.G is undermining education, says HURIWA

HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA, HURIWA, a development focused and Democracy inclined Non-Governmental Organization has Yesterday faulted the 36 State Governors and the Federal Government’s stand on the ongoing industrial action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU] saying that it was wrong for the State Governors to gang up with the Federal administration to undermine the future of education in Nigeria. HURIWA urged both the Federal Government and the striking university lecturers to constructively conclude the negotiations and sign an agreement that will upgrade the standard of facilities in the public universities to be able to compete favourably with the best in the World in the twenty first century.

HURIWA which canvassed organized civil society groups and the Nigerian Labour Congress unified support for the striking University teachers stated in a media release issued and endorsed by its National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko that the actions taken so far by the Federal Government to pull out of further negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the decision of the Vice president to rally the support of state Governors against the striking university teachers will rather than resolve the lingering bad situation caused by the ongoing strike with the attendant risks to the educational future of the Nigerian youths, will surely aggravate an already tensed atmosphere in the nation’s educational sector.

Specifically, at a meeting organized by the Vice President Good luck Jonathan attended by the thirty six state Governors, the state chief executives endorsed the position of the Federal Government that it cannot sign an agreement with the striking University teachers that would be binding on state Governments since according to them, Nigeria runs a Federal structure even as some of the Governors threatened legal action against the striking lecturers.

HURIWA faulted that line of thinking of the Governors as pedestrian saying that it is a fact that in a Federal structure as we currently have in Nigeria there is synergy between the various Federating units which is why the National University Commission [NUC] is the sole body that regulates all Universities in Nigeria irrespective of whether these institutions are sponsored by the Federal, State or private investors. The Rights group also opposed the rumoured moves by the Government to introduce high tuition fees for students of public Universities in the Country saying that the decision will alienate millions of Nigerians from very poor backgrounds who are also entitled to the universally protected Right to education.

HURIWA asserted that the outcome of the meeting of the state Governors and the vice president on the ongoing strike in the Nigerian university system shows that those who claimed that Nigerians voted them in as political office holders have lost touch with reality and have decided to gang up so as to undermine the development and progress of the nation’s educational sector rather than find lasting, non-partisan and constructive solution to the lingering crisis of gross underdevelopment of the structures in the entire public university system of Nigeria.

The Rights Group which backed the striking lecturers for their commitment to collective bargaining which is lawful in labour law blamed the Federal Government for incompetently managing the crisis in the University system by the use of propaganda through the publicly owned and funded Nigerian Television Authority. The Group also warned against any attempt by the Federal or State Governments to break the ranks of the striking lecturers because according to it, divide- and -rule tactics does not bring sustainable and result oriented panacea to any problem real or imagined. HURIWA called on Government to be committed and to sign the agreement already reached between it and the University teachers over eight years ago and to stop playing politics with the future of Nigerians.