NANS AND NYCN NOW ON F.G SIDE OF THE BATTLE FIELD
National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) have declared their
opposition to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU), describing the action as self-serving
and hypocritical.
Both bodies alleged that the N87 billion being demanded as
earned allowances was not a part of the 2009 agreement, but
was calculated and handed to the government to insert into the
agreement in February 2013.
The National President of NANS, Mr. Yinka Gbadebo,
speaking at a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, also warned
ASUU against taking alleged steps to divide the students’ body.
This, he said, in response to some protests by some students in
support of the ongoing action which was now in its 102th day.
The Chairman of the Needs Assessment Report Implementation
Committee and Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswan, had
already met with NANS and NYCN where he updated them on
the efforts of the government at improving the infrastructure of
the universities.
The two bodies accused ASUU of deliberately frustrating
efforts by the students and youth body to meet its leaders and
discuss the union’s grouses, saying that this suggested that the
union has something to hide.
Gbadebo, who spoke on behalf of two bodies, added that the
causes being pursued by the union are not in the interest of
Nigerians, as the union is propagating.
He disclosed that NANS and NYCN had already obtained
copies of the 2009 Agreement and were convinced that ASUU
was being egocentric in its demands for its own gains and not in
the interest of the Nigerian university system.
“The N87billion being demanded by ASUU was not calculated
and stated clearly as at the time the 2009 agreement was reached.
The N87billion was generally calculated and presented to
government to be inserted into the agreement by ASUU in
February this year,” he alleged.
Gbadebo decried the concerns of ASUU as regards the Needs
Assessment into Primary and Secondary demands.
While NANS and NYCN backed ASUU’s secondary demands,
they doubted the sincerity of its primary demands.
“The primary demands are the earned allowance totalling
N87billion being demanded by ASUU for its members. ASUU
is also demanding that all landed properties in public universities
nationwide should be allocated to it by the government to be
managed via a company called ASUU Holdings,” he said.
Gbadebo further said: “The secondary demands are those which
encapsulate conducive environment for teaching and learning,
total implementation of UNESCO recommendation on
education, among others. A total of N400billion is being
demanded by ASUU for these for 2013.”
The primary reasons, Gbadebo said have become the main
reasons why ASUU had refused to call off the strike.
“The N87billion being demanded by ASUU was not calculated
and stated clearly as at the time the 2009 agreement was reached.
The N87billion was generally calculated and presented to
government to be inserted into the agreement by ASUU in
February this year,” he alleged.
NANS and NYCN, however, appealed to ASUU to avoid
politicising the strike, and call off the action in the interest of
Nigerian students.
They called for a National Education Stakeholders’ Dialogue to
come up with practical solutions to reverse the declining trend in
the nation’s education system.
“We want to equally sound a clear note of warning to some
ASUU members who are relentlessly trying to polarise our dear
organisation, NANS through sponsorship of fallacious,
slanderous and libelous publications by fictitious and to a great
extent unauthorised persons in the name of NANS to desist
from this act of shame, as any further sponsorship of such will
be met with the full venom of the wrath of Nigerian students
and youths,” Gbadebo said.
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