Poor Funding Of Universities : ASUU Begins Nationwide Strike …As Labour Again Shuns Meeting With FG On Minimum Wage Insists On Strike, ’Morrow

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has commenced an indefinite strike.
An official of the union, Ben Ugwoke from the University of Abuja, confirmed the development to newsmen yesterday night.
When contacted, the Chairman of ASUU at Obafemi Awolowo University, Adeola Egbedokun said the strike is total and indefinite until the union’s needs are met.
The strike is to protest the poor funding of Nigerian universities and alleged plan by the Federal Government to increase students fees and introduce an education bank.
Led by its National President, Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU declared the strike at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, yesterday.
Weeks before the strike was announced, Mr Ogunyemi explained in an interview with newsmen why the lecturers were opposed to an education bank.
“The Nigerian government experimented with it for 7-8 years, it failed.
“So government had to set up a ministerial committee at the federal executive council to go and wind up the national education banking plan in 2001/2002, something they started in 1993. So for seven to eight years, the experiment failed. Why did it fail? Government was not living up to its financial obligations towards the bank. There was widespread corruption, capacity of students to pay back the loan was not there, because there were no jobs and there are still no jobs.
“So you can imagine what will become of a bank that the loan equipment is not coming or is very low, the rate of payment is low or not coming. And we told them all of these but they went ahead to come up with the idea that well, we have calculated the cost of what we need to train an undergraduate and they have estimated that it will be N1 million that they will borrow from the bank.
These students will borrow 1 million, but when they borrow, 70 per cent of it will be paid directly into the universities and 30 per cent will be given to students to maintain themselves. We smelt a rat. Why? Why are you insisting that students who do not have the capacity to pay should borrow and that this time around the money will not be given to them will be paid directly to universities irrespective of whether private or public,” the don said.
Meanwhile, organised labour last night shunned meeting organised by the Federal Government to resolve the impasse on the new minimum wage. Non of the labour leaders attended the meeting at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
Workers across Nigeria, during a sensitisation rally protested government’s delay in agreeing on a new minimum wage and threaten to embark on nationwide strike if the authorities fail to meet their demand by November 6, 2018.
One of the key officers of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, told our correspondence that the meeting was irrelevant as the only meeting they would attend was the one scheduled today for the signing of the report of the Tripartite Committee.
It was reliably gathered that labour leaders switched off the phone lines to avoid distraction from the government team. Already, our correspondence gathered that the Federal Government has decided to punish some unions that would heed the directive of the labour centres to proceed on strike action tomorrow.
But a call and text message put across to the phone line of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige was neither picked nor the message replied by the minister.
The SGF Mustapha, who spoke earlier, gave indication that the tripartite committee on national minimum wage set up by the Federal Government would be concluding work and submit its report today (Monday).
Further, the SGF explained that the Federal Government was waiting for the report so that it could commence processes leading to the enactment of law on the new minimum wage.
He said the report was expected to go through the National Economic Council and the Council of State before a proposed legislation would be sent to the National Assembly on the issue. He hinted that what was pending was for the panel to harmonise the 15th chapter of the report, the figures, before submitting the report to the President.
“I assure you that government is waiting for the report and will immediately set up processes required for implementation. “Hopefully, their work would be concluded when they meet tomorrow (Monday) and append their signatures to the report.
“They will then transmit to me and I will seek an audience with the President to present it to him. “The report will go through NEC, Council of State before a draft executive bill will be sent to NASS. “I am awaiting the report of the committee. They will meet tomorrow (Monday) at 11am,” he said.
The SGF said the ability to pay was critical in arriving at a decision on the minimum wage, while noting that a lot of states are still battling to pay the current minimum wage
similarly, a civil society group, Joint Action Front (JAF), said on Sunday it was in support of the new N30,000 minimum wage proposed by organised labour while accusing the government of being insincere and unwilling to pay the proposed amount.
JAF in a statement signed by Dipo Fashina and Abiodun Aremu, its chairman and secretary respectively, urged the organised labour to disregard the court injunction procured by the federal government stopping it from embarking on its planned indefinite strike.
Following the breakdown of negotiation with the government, the organised labour fixed November 6 as the start of an indefinite strike. The government, however, secured an order from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on Friday stopping the two main labour unions in the country, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) from embarking on the planned strike.
JAF said the strike is the only way to get the government to accept the proposed minimum wage.
“Minimum wage by law, and by legitimate demand, is for all workers [from level 01 – 17 and other salary scales] in the public and private employment of 50 or more employees. Indeed, for us in JAF, Minimum wage should be mandatory for all employers regardless the number of employees,” the statement declared.
“The current demand for a new National Minimum Wage has gone beyond the stage of negotiation, hence the N30,000 agreed at the Tripartite Committee, which is even very poor [@ US$83 per month compared to 1981 Minimum Wage of N125 @ US$250), represents an irreducible minimum and therefore, IT IS NOT NEGOTIABLE.”
The group stated that the federal government as well as state governments will not pay the N30,000 being proposed by labour if not compelled to do so.
“What is clear today from the unnecessary tensions being generated in the polity by the APC Looters’ Government and its officials is that none of the 36 State Governors and the Federal Government, irrespective of political parties (APC, PDP and APGA) like in past struggles for upward review of wage, is committed to pay the minimum wage without being compelled by struggle to do so.”