Uniabuja Channel

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities has spent 1,500 days or 4.09 years on strike since the return to democracy in1999, findings by this newspaper suggest. This implies that about 19.5 per cent of every academic year is spent on strike. According to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, about 94 per cent of students attend Nigeria’s public tertiary institutions. However, most students spend more than the necessary time in school due to the usual clash between the government and lecturers For example, in 1992, during the regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, a decree was promulgated which made strikes by teachers a treasonable felony. The lecturers stuck to their guns and the Babangida junta bowed to pressure. However, findings shows that the advent of civilian rule seems not to have improved tertiary education in Nigeria going by the frequency of strikes. In 1999, the same year President Olusegun Obasanjo was inaugurated, ASUU spent 150 days on strike and in 2001, the union spent 90 da...

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has expressed regret at the falling standard of education in the country and challenged education administrators to wake up from their slumber Adamu, who spoke Thursday at the commissioning of 7 various projects a the Federal College of Education, YOLA frowned at a situation where many graduating students in our tertiary institutions do not know how to read should be of serious concern to all and sundry. ” Many graduating students in many tertiary institutions across the country finds it difficult to write, read or communicate in English.Government is aware of this unfortunate development in our education sector and it not rest on its oars to salvage the situation”. Adamu Adamu who was represented by the Director, Tertiary Education, Hajia Rakiya Iliyasu noted that graduates of tertiary institutions across the country needs to brace up with the challenges of modern education The Minister said not only the “lecturers but stallholders in the educati...

I carefully read the press release of December 8, 2020, from the media office of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment regarding the on-going effort at resolving the industrial dispute between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The claims of the minister on the ‘no work no pay’ rule are flawed on several counts. First, the government lacks the right to impose a `no work no pay rule’ on workers who embarked on a strike because it (government) violated the sanctity of collective agreement, which it freely entered into with the trade union. If this is allowed to happen, then the industrial relations system would have lost the very self-regulatory pluralist value on which it is anchored. Hence, in the current case, the federal government, as the violator, cannot at the same time reach out to invoke the `no work no pay’ clause. This strike is clearly provoked by the government and by this singular act she strips herself of the morality and...