HOUSE of Representatives Speaker Aminu
Tambuwal yesterday said if there is a need to make extra budgetary
provisions for the Federal Government to resolve the lingering face-off
between it and the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities ASUU),
the House would do so.
The Speaker spoke in Abuja when he
received a briefing on the ASUU strike from the Aminu Suleiman-led House
Committee on Education.
He called for a speedy resolution of the
face-off between both sides, which have led to the closure of
government-owned universities for nearly four months.
The House mandated the Education
committee to investigate the face-off by highlighting the areas of
conflict and proffer solutions.
Tambuwal urged the warring parties to consider the interest of the students and the educational future of the nation.
He said: “Let me use this opportunity to
appeal to both the Executive arm and the authorities of ASUU to quickly
resolve the problem. If there is need for any appropriation, the House
will expeditiously assent to it in the interest of our students and the
nation.”
The Ondo State Police Command yesterday
dispersed the peaceful rally staged by the Federal University of
Technology, Akure, branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)
and Adekunle Ajasin University (AAU) Akungba-Akoko.
The police frustrated the planned rally in Akure, the Ondo State capital.
They moved their officers and men to the entrance of the institution and blocked the protesters from moving out for the protest.
The protesters, chanting various
solidarity songs, carried placards with various inscriptions, such as
“Sound universities yield national development”; “Okojo-Iweala, ask your
dad about ASUU struggle”; “ASUU says no to destruction of public
universities”; “Agreement is agreement, so FG should do the right
thing”, among others.
Addressing reporters on the police
action, the ASUU-FUTA branch Chairman, Dr Alex Odiyi, wondered why the
police prevented the union’s members from holding the protest.
He said: “We wonder why the police are
doing this to us. We want to go to the town to inform the public about
the true state of things. That is our intention. Now, they are saying we
should not go. This is very unfortunate.”
At the AAU, Akungba-Akoko, the university teachers were disallowed from staging their peaceful protest.
Police spokesman Wole Ogodo said the police prevented the protesters so that the protest would not be hijacked by the hoodlums.
“We have information that some hoodlums
wanted to attack the lecturers. We don’t want that to happen, because it
can cause another crisis in the town. That is why we stopped the
protest from going beyond their campus,” Ogodo said.
The University of Benin (UNIBEN) chapter
of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday held a
road show and protest through major streets of Benin, the Edo State
capital.
The protesters wore academic gowns and carried placards with various inscriptions.
They accused the government of plotting to sell the universities and embarking on what they called an “offensive propaganda”.
The UNIBEN-ASUU chairman Dr Anthony Monye-Emina said the allowance allegedly released by the government was not their priority.
He said university lecturers were interested in the funding of “infrastructure, science laboratory, workshops and others”.
Monye said the government did not behave
with honour because President Goodluck Jonathan chaired the fundraising
of a private university at a time public universities were on strike.
He said: “This government is shameless
and has no honour. Tutors have been on strike since July 1 to press home
their 2009 agreement with the federal government. We are not making
fresh demands. The 2009 agreement recommended N1.6 trillion to cater for
education and this ought to be provided at the rate of N400 billion
within a period of four years.
“The government keeps saying no money to fund education. Yet, it bailed out banks, aviation and even Nollywood.”
A former ASUU President Dr Festus Iyayi said the government could not say there was no money.
He said: “The president of United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, last July, indicated that the amount
of money stolen by Nigerians was over $600 billion. If you piled up that
money, it would get to the moon seven times and back.”
Source: http://thenationonlineng.net
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