Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday, met with the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi; and the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, in London.

Although details of the meeting were still sketchy,but it may be connected of negotiations ahead of the 2023 presidential election.

Wike attended the meeting with his allies including Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State; Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State; Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke, among others.We gathered that a meeting between Wike and the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, will also hold in London later today.

The party elders are apprehensive that the activities of Wike and the governors of Oyo and Benue states, Seyi Makinde and Samuel Ortom, may negatively affect the PDP’s chances in the 2023 presidential election.They reportedlly expressed concern about the growing relationship between Wike and influential members of the All Progressives Congress, describing the development as worrisome.The party’s top members specifically expressed concern over the meeting Wike and two other PDP governors held with the APC presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in London on Monday.

The Tuesday meeting between Wike and Tinubu in the UK dominated discourse among the PDP hierarchy on Wednesday.

The National Working Committee of the party met with PDP governorship candidates across the 36 states of the federation at its Wadata Plaza headquarters in Wuse, Abuja, on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by all PDP governorship candidates except the Oyo State governor, who is currently out of the country.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-25

'Education is the passport to the future,for tomorrow belong for those who prepare for it today'.Going by these words of Malcolm X,current happening in Nigeria's educational sector,indicates that the country may have a bleak future.The Academic Staff Union of Universities has raised the alarm over the exodus of lecturers from the nation’s universities for greener pastures abroad.

The union attributed the development to the Federal Government’s poor treatment of its members which it said had forced many to venture into other sources of livelihood.

The National President, ASUU, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, lamented that many lecturers had taken to farming and other economic activities, while a large number had left the country.

Osodeke spoke in reaction to the government’s refusal to meet some of their demands, including the payment of seven months’ backlog of salaries accrued during the strike.

The current strike by ASUU started on February 14, 2022, and entered its day 188,today Monday 22nd of August.

In 2017, the union went on strike for 30 days; in 2018, the lecturers shunned work for 90 days while in 2020, the public universities were shut down for 270 days.

 ASUU accused the government of failing to release the revitalisation funds for universities; failure to deploy the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.

ASUU had also demanded the release of earned allowances for its members; release of the whitepaper report of visitation panels to universities and renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/2009 agreement.

Speaking on the mass exile of lecturers from the university system, Osodeke stated, “So many lecturers are leaving to engage in farming and others; lecturers are tired of the treatment they’re receiving from the government and because of this, they are looking for alternatives.  So many more will leave even after the strike too.

‘’I pity the country; Nigeria will be the loser for it.  Instead of coming to the table; look at how they will solve the issue, rather, they believe in punishing lecturers. It’s so sad. Your lecturers went on strike, you believe they will become hungry and come back to beg. Many lecturers will also leave to venture into other areas; some are also looking at becoming self-employed.”

The ASUU Chairman, University of Lagos branch, Dr Dele Ashiru, revealed that more than 70 per cent of the brightest brains in academia had left the country, adding that the government had been so disrespectful and insensitive to the scholars.

“The impact of the government’s insensitivity and deployment of the weapon of hunger might not be immediately known until after the strike. As I speak with you, more than 70 per cent of bright and promising young academics retained by the university through mentorship have all left the country for greener pastures due to the poor conditions of service in Nigeria.

‘’Those that are left are on the verge of leaving. No government in the history of Nigeria has been so insensitive, brash and disrespectful of the best brains in the country. This is unfortunate and a shame,’’ the don lamented.

Ashiru, in an interview with Arise TV, monitored by one of our correspondents on Sunday, said the union was not going to call off its strike action as done by the other academic unions.

He said, “ASUU is a union of intellectuals, we don’t look at what others do to make our decisions. We make our decisions based on verifiable facts and the facts available to us have not shown this government to be a responsible and sensible one.”

Options for lecturers

Corroborating his colleague, the Chairperson of ASUU, University of Uyo chapter, Dr Happiness Uduk, confirmed to one of our correspondents that some lecturers had left the system.

She said, however, that she could not specify how many of them had already left UNIUYO.

She stated, “I cannot tell you how many there are because I am not sure about it. But I don’t think what is happening in other universities is different from ours. It is true that people are getting opportunities and leaving the system; we have heard about people who have left already.”

It was also learnt that some lecturers at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta and the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, had similarly resigned and relocated abroad.

The Chairman of the ASUU chapter of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Dr Adeola Egbedokun, said the number of his members that had left since the strike commenced was not known yet.

Egbedokun, however, declared that he would encourage those who desired to leave to do so because of the Federal Government’s poor handling of education.

He added, “It is impossible for us to know until school reopens. That is when we can know because no one will give us notice that he or she is leaving. It is the university that would be notified, not the union.’’

“But I will encourage as many people as possible that want to move on, to move on. That is the reality. Nigeria has been plunged into the mud. I have never seen this kind of callousness in my life,” Egbedokun concluded.

One of our correspondents in Abeokuta gathered that two lecturers had officially resigned from the OOU while several had left FUNAAB and relocated abroad.

The Chairman,  ASUU FUNAAB, Dr Gbenga Adeleye, said he did not know the number of lecturers who had resigned or relocated.

But a union leader in FUNAAB, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said many lecturers had left the university and relocated abroad.

The source further said a particular college in the university had almost become empty as a result of the development.

He said “I know that some of our colleagues have left. Some of them would say they want to go and meet their families for holidays, but we know that they will not come back.

“I can confirm to you that most people leaving often take permission that they want to go for holidays. However, they’ll not return. It’s not official because some of them go under the guise that they are coming back.”

Two OOU lecturers

Confirming the situation, the ASUU Chairman at OOU,  Joel Okewale, disclosed that two lecturers had resigned from the institution.

“I know about two or three of our colleagues that have relocated from my own end here; I don’t know of any other person.

“I also know of one who is having a little challenge in giving due notice in his resignation, but I don’t know the update. We are having a congress tomorrow (today), if there are other people, I will have an idea.”

The Chairman ASUU at  the Federal University of Technology, Akure,  Prof. Oluyinka Awopetu, when contacted,  said, “There, of course, are lecturers that are travelling out of the country in pursuance of further qualifications.”

“It is extremely impossible to authoritatively say they abandoned the profession. Others sought way of coping in this difficult and trying time as well. One may not be able to say if they are coming back or not! If you were in their shoes and you find a better opportunity, what will you do please?

On his part, the ASUU leader at the University of Nigeria,  Christian Opata, said some lecturers were pursuing other means of livelihood.

 He said, “I’m not aware of any for now. What I can say authoritatively is that many used this strike to find new means of making money by establishing new lines of business. I know of two people who are loaning money to members without interest. They made millions (of naira) through tomatoes, yellow pepper and maize farming.’’

Meanwhile, the leaders of Nigerian students under the aegis of the Council of Student’s Union Presidents have vowed to sue the FG over the prolonged strike by ASUU members.

The SUG President of the University of Jos, Joshua Adankala, said “We are planning to take them (FG and the ministers of education; labour and employment and others) to court. The court action has become imperative because we can’t take the continued strike anymore.”

The CSUPs which comprised the students union governments in over 100 universities in Nigeria, in the first week of August, stormed Abuja where they lamented the continuous loss of students to incessant killing from bandits’ attacks as a result of their prolonged stay at home caused by the strike.

The president, the National Association of Nigeria Students, Sunday Asefon, said the association was still holding talks with its legal team after which it would decide the next line of action.

The education minister last Thursday asked students affected by the ASUU strike to sue the union for liabilities suffered as a result of the industrial action.

But giving an update on NANS’ decision to take the government to court on Sunday, Asefon said they were still consulting with their legal team.

The Students’ Union President of the University of Ibadan, Adewole Adeyinka, spoke on the plan to sue the government.

“We are concluding on this by this week. We are holding a meeting with some stakeholders in Abuja this week but we won’t disclose their identities now,” the student leader said

SANs advise parents

Speaking on the options open to students and parents,  Prof Sam Erugo, SAN, advised them to hold the government accountable.

For parents who could afford it, he said they could enrol their wards in private universities or they could travel abroad for studies.

Also, a professor of law in the Faculty of Law, University of Calabar, Prof. Israel Worugji,  said the government should know that students had the right to education, arguing that such rights could not be realised with the attitude of the government which he said was a way to deny the citizens the rights to education.

Bute A professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Hakeem Olaniyan, said that ASSU was not achieving much in the strike

Olaniyan said “Take a census  of the children we are teaching, they are not children of the poor. They can afford to pay fees. If the government says this is all we can afford, we need to look inward in terms of tuition to augment whatever little government can pay.

The Federal Government will be paying earned allowances of lecturers and the non-academic staff directly to universities, The PUNCH has learnt.

It has also mandated the university management to decide on the sharing formula.

The FG during the negotiations with ASUU last week promised that the sum of N170bn  would be included in the 2023 budget to take care of two major demands of the university-based unions.

The sum of N120bn will be released as revitalisation funds to the universities while the remaining N50bn will be allocated as earned allowances.

Our correspondent also gathered that the union leaders kicked against the proposal because the government pleaded to delay the payment till 2023.

Sources within the ASUU National Executive Council accused the government of being insincere.

“They are making it seem as if the N170bn and the N50bn are two separate funds. The sum total is N170bn: N120bn will be for the revitalisation fund while the remaining N50bn will be for the earned allowances.”

Another source confided in our correspondent said, “Yes, it is true, they will commence the payment by 2023. Unfortunately, we will not listen to promises this time round.”

Meanwhile, our correspondent also gathered that unlike the last tranche of earned allowances when ASUU negotiated for 75 per cent of the total earned allowances that were released, the government decided to leave the discretion of payment to the university management.

The source, a senior official at the Federal Ministry of Education, explained to our reporter that the decision to allow the university management to decide on the sharing formula was to avoid the victimisation of other university unions by ASUU.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-22

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Thursday said it would not call off its strike until the salary arrears of its members were paid.

The university lecturers also said they would not teach students to make up for the six months they had been on strike if the Federal Government failed to pay for the “period of strike.”

The union’s national president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed in response to a statement by the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, that the Federal Government would  not concede to ASUU’s demands for the backlog of salaries withheld within the period.

If you recall,ASUU embarked on a one-month warning strike on February 14. However, the union has extended the strike several times in the past six months.

Other associations such as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Educational Institutions and National Association of Academic Technologists later followed suit, shutting down public universities nationwide.

Adamu had told State House correspondents on Thursday that the government would not pay the lecturers for the period of strike.

But reacting to the government’s position, Osodeke said, “He is joking. If they fail to pay, we will not teach those students; we won’t make up for that period. We will start a new session (2022/2023). We won’t conduct examinations; we will start a fresh session totally.

“Lecturers are not doctors that once life is gone, it can’t be brought back. For lecturers, we can still resume where we stopped and still teach them and make up for lost time. But for us, if they fail to pay we won’t make up for the lost time. We won’t go back to fill backlogs; the schools will start a new session, 2022/2023. Examinations and the period lost won’t be taught.”

He added, ‘’If they want to do ‘no work no pay,’ we will also do ‘no pay no work.’ If they won’t pay the backlog, we won’t teach the backlog. We are not like other workers. He doesn’t know what he is saying.”

‘FG’s offer miserable’

Explaining why the meeting with the government had been unable to resolve the lingering strike in a statement on Thursday, Osodeke explained that the government’s offer was poor.

He disclosed that the union told the Federal Government through the ministry of education to return to the New Draft Agreement of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Renegotiation Committee whose work spanned a total of five and half years as a demonstration of good faith.

The PUNCH had reported that last Tuesday, ASUU met with the government through the Prof Nimi Briggs committee.

The statement titled, ‘Why ASUU rejects government’s award of salary’, read, “The major reason given by the Federal Government for the miserly offer-paucity of revenue, is not tenable.

“This is because of several reasons, chief of which is poor management  of the economy. This has given rise to leakages in the revenue of governments at all levels. There is wasteful spending, misappropriation  of funds and outright stealing of our collective patrimony.

“ASUU believes that if the leakages in the management  of the country’s resources are stopped, there will be more than enough to meet the nation’s revenue and expenditure  targets without borrowing and plunging the country into a debt crisis as is the case now.”

Osodeke in the statement explained that the government imposed the ongoing strike action on ASUU, saying the FG encouraged it to linger because of its provocative indifference.

The union further said, “The Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee submitted  the first Draft Agreement  in May 2021, but the government’s  official response did not come until about one year later! Again, awards presented by the Nimi Briggs-led Team came across in a manner of take-it-or-leave-it on a sheet of paper. No serious country in the world treats their scholars this way.”

It stressed that the government’s      surreptitious move to   set   aside    the   principle of collective bargaining, which was globally in practice, had the potential of damaging lecturers’ psyche and destroying their commitment  to the university  system.

According to ASUU, rejecting a salary package arrived at through collective bargaining is a repudiation of the government’s  pronouncements  on reversing  brain drain.

However, speaking to journalists at the 47th session of the State House Ministerial Media Briefing organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the education minister said ASUU’s demands to be paid salaries for the six-month strike period is stalling its negotiations with the union.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-19

Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun has appealed to the Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to end the ongoing strike  in the interest of students and the country.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-26

Tongues have been wagging over the conspicous absence of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Bar Association,currently holding at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party, the Labour Party, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, respectively were present at the event.

The vice-presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Kashim Shettima,was present at the event to represent the presidential candidate of the party,fueling speculations,about the status of his health.

The 2022 NBA AGM is themed, “BOLD Transitions” and its General Conference is expected to hold between August 19 and 26, with the opening ceremony happening today (Monday).

Also present at the event are Governors Solomon Lalong and Godwin Obaseki of Plateau and Edo states respectively.

The Lagos State Attorney General, Moyosore Onigbanjo,representing Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the state, while the Chief Judge of the state, Kazeem Alogba,was also present.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-22

Chief Duro Onabule former Chief Press Secretary to President Ibrahim Babangida is dead .
The news of his death filtered into the air through Chief Eric Teniola who is close to some members of his family.
He was 83 years old.
The cause of his death is not known as he was said to be hale and hearty few days ago.
Duro Onabule, a veteran journalist was national editor of National Concord from 1984 to 1985 and later became Chief Press Secretary to President Ibrahim Babangida.
Onabule was presidential spokesman for most of the Babangida administration when government punished newspaper and magazine publishers with temporary proscription to make them conform to the code of conduct set up by the administration.
Late Onabule was born on September 27, 1939 in Ijebu-Ode, he graduated from CMS Grammar School and School of Journalism, London. His first media work was a reporter for the Daily Express in 1961, three years later he joined the staff of Daily Sketch. He spent some time with Daily Sketch before going back to his previous employer, Daily Express.In 1969, he served as the London correspondent of the Express. In the mid 1970s, he worked for the Daily Times, rising to become a deputy editor of Headlines magazine. When MKO Abiola started Concord Press, Onabule was appointed features editor, in 1984, he became the editor of Concord newspaper.

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Ayobami Adedeji News 2022-08-17