ASUU Strike, Not Politically Motivated –Sese

Even as the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) enters its fifth week, the union has contrary to insinuations, declared that the action  has no political undertones but rather a protest gainst the deplorable conditions of public universities across the country.

The union further denied that the action was targeted at President Goodluck Jonathan,  insisting that politics has nothing to do with its current struggle to draw attention to the poor state of infrastructure and deplorable conditions of teaching and learning at the various universities, with a view to saving the university system from total collapse.

Making the clarification in an interview in Port Harcout last week, the ASUU Chairman at the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Dr. Beke Sese said imputing political motives to the current ASUU strike was a calculated attempt by some persons to deploy propaganda gimmicks to the cause of the university teachers in order to divert attention from the real issues that informed the strike in the first place.

To buttress this point, ASUU says the body is organised in such a way that even             its President, in spite of where he hails from, cannot call out the union to strike or suspend a strike without recourse to its National Executive Council (NEC), which is vested with such powers.

Besides, the union also believes that none of his members can sway other members towards his or her political inclinations since ASUU is not a political  organisation.

While stressing that the  ASUU strike, was not politically motivated, Sese noted that it was not the first time in the history of the country that the union had embarked on a protracted strike, adding that ASUU strikes were not predicated on where the President of the country came from.

He recalled that when the present Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega was ASUU President, the country, then, was under the leadership of Late Gen. Sani Abacha, who equally hailed from the North like Prof Jega, pointing out that the ASUU leadership at that time, did not compromise, even when an Emir from the North had waded into the matter. To further debunk the insinuations, Sese noted that the strike action was going on all over the country, even as academic activities in all public universities were grounded.

The ASUU Chairman, however, condemned attempts by some opposition  political parties and politicians in the country, including the APC, to cash in on the current strike action to run down the Federal Government and the Presidency, saying, “we are not happy about it. We condemn this kind of behaviour, because people should not politicise ASUU strike, because ASUU strike is not politically motivated”. Sese, therefore, called on all politicians in the country to leave ASUU alone and stop using the current strike action as a tool for pursuing their political ambitions.