Talks On South-East ASUU Strike Deadlocked

The negotiating team of ASUU walked out on South East governors and other stakeholders in Enugu last Sunday, as negotiations to end their three-month strike flopped.

The deadlock followed the insistence of Governor Peter Obi of Anambra that the negotiations should be conducted in Igbo language.

Our source reports that the striking workers left the Nike Lake Resort Hotel, venue of the meeting, in anger, threatening not to return to the negotiating table in the geo-political zone.

The ASUU members claimed that some of their national officers who attended the meeting were not Igbos, but Obi insisted that the strike was an Igbo issue, saying that non-Igbos could leave the meeting.

Efforts by bishops of the Catholic, Anglican and Methodist churches as well as other elders and students to recall the striking workers to the meeting failed as they left the venue in anger.

Some student union executives from the zone, who spoke to newsmen, condemned the action of the lecturers, describing it as a ‘disgrace’ to Igbo leaders.

According to Mr Kingsley Chidozie, the Presidentof the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the South East, the lecturers should not have walked out from the meeting because of such a “flimsy reason’’.

“What we want is for the universities to re-open. They should have listened to the stakeholders rather than walking out on them,’’ Chidozie said.

The President of Abia State University Students Union Government, Mr Udemba Ngeleoka, said the students had been pushed to the wall.

“We have been pushed to the wall. It is not that we cannot do anything but if further negotiations fail, we will revolt,’’ Ngeleoka threatened.

Also reacting, the Chairman of the Strike Coordinating Committee of ASUU, Mr Emmanuel Osodeke, regretted the governor’s statement.

“For a governor who attended a good university to reduce the university system to a local affair is rather unfortunate,’’ Osodeke said.

He said that the lecturers would no longer attend any negotiation in the South East zone as they had been intimidated enough.

Meanwhile, a new committee has been set up for further negotiations with the striking lecturers.

The committee comprises of former Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife of Anambra, former Ohaneze Ndi Igbo President General, Chief Dozie Ikedife, the Anglican Bishop of Enugu, Most Rev Emmanuel Chukwuma and Most Rev. Sam Uche of the Methodist Church.

The committee, headed by Chukwuma, appealed to the lecturers to go back to the classroom and await further negotiations.

Chukwuma assured the people that the problem would be resolved in a week.

“We feel for ASUU and the governors too. Both parties should understand each other,’’ he said.

The meeting was attended by the governors of Anambra, Abia, Ebonyi and Imo as well as some members of the national and state assembly members from the zone.

Others were traditional rulers from the zone, vice chancellors, pro chancellors, students union executives and ASUU executives from the zone and its national officers.