The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday told the immediate past Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, to face his presidential campaigns and stop interfering in the union’s issues.
This is as university students, angered by the Federal Government’s failure to resolve the impasse with ASUU, vow to continue protests to draw the government’s attention to their plight.
Nwajiuba, who resigned last week due to his presidential ambition, in an interview with The PUNCH, had maintained that state universities shouldn’t have joined the ongoing strike since most of ASUU’s demands were challenges being faced by federal universities.
But, in a reaction to Nwajiuba’s comment on the union’s ongoing strike, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, told The PUNCH that ASUU is a union of all academics in the Nigerian public universities.
Osodeke said, “Nwajiuba doesn’t know anything, he is ignorant. Is Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board conducting exams for federal universities alone? Is National Universities Commission regulating only federal universities?
“He knows nothing, thank God he has left. He should concentrate on his campaign; he should leave ASUU and government alone. He should leave us alone and go and do his campaign to become president.
“When they get TETfund, does it go to federal universities alone? Even NEEDS assessment? When Nigeria Labour Congress negotiates salaries, does it go to federal workers alone? He is trying to get public support by talking about ASUU; he has left us and we have left him and we are not talking about him.”
Meanwhile, students of various Nigerian universities on Tuesday continued their protests against the ASUU’s ongoing industrial action.
In Ile-Ife, Osun State, students, under the aegis of the Great Ife Concerned Students, in collaboration with Fund Education Coalition, threatened to disrupt the state’s July 16 governorship election if schools were not reopened.
The students, who mounted barricades on Ede/Ife Road, Ilesa/Akure and Gbongan/Ibadan expressways for several hours, called on the Federal Government to respect the agreement reached with ASUU.
Speaking with The PUNCH, the Vice President, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Students’ Union, Salvation Aworanti, said, “Our agitations still remain the same. Government should respect agreement reached with ASUU in 2009. They should reopen our schools because we will not allow election to hold in Osun, as far as OAU students are concerned, if they don’t open our school.”
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