In a frank message to the President, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has called on President Goodluck Jonathan to ignore the reports of his ministers on the ongoing crises in the nations’ universities and polytechnics, declaring that the ministers will never tell him the truth about the situation in the education sector.
Rather, the congress advised the President to dialogue with the university and polytechnic teachers that are both on nationwide strikes. “We urge President Goodluck Jonathan not to rely solely on reports from people in his cabinet who might never tell him the truth about the situation at hand. From one side of their lips they tell us that Nigeria has a robust and strong economy, and from the other side they tell us that from October, 2013 the government may have problems paying workers’ salaries/allowances. Something is definitely wrong somewhere.
“If nothing is wrong, there is no reason why an agreement that was signed in 2009 with stakeholders in the tertiary institutions is yet to be honoured four years later. This is not only preposterous, but also has a devastating and fatal consequence on sanctity of contract,” the TUC said in a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by its President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and the Secretary-General, Comrade Musa Lawal.
The congress said it was particularly troubled taking into cognisance the abysmal performance of students in their examination and other academic endeavours, adding, “If the nation must enter the club of 20 leading countries in the world, we must begin to address these issues holistically.”
The statement said the congress was highly disturbed by the various strikes embarked upon by the ASUU and their counterparts in ASUP, saying that the strike had been brewing for four years, being a fall-out of the Federal Government’s non-implementation of some key clauses in a Memorandum of Understanding that it entered into with the lecturers in 2009.
It therefore called on the government to engage the workers, adding, “The TUC wishes to appeal to government to engage all the striking workers in a dialogue to resolve the issues at stake and give room for more conducive and optimally productive working environment.”
“The educational downslide and attendant problems must be stopped lest we find ourselves in an abyss. The government should take decisive action that will meet the legitimate needs and expectations of ASUU and ASUP. The time to do that is now!”
MEANWHILE, angry students from Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) and other higher institutions on Tuesday disrupted traffic along Ikorodu Road in Lagos State to protest against the continued closure of their school.
The students gathered under the umbrella of Nigeria Education Right Coalition against Commercialisation of Education in Nigeria.0
The students were protesting the indefinite strike, embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP), which has been on for months now.
The visibly angry students rebuffed efforts by men of the Nigeria Police to disperse them as they chanted war songs.
Some of the students laid down on the middle of ever-busy Ikorodu road, while others were busy distributing fliers to drivers who were driving at snail speed on the other side of the road.
One of the students, who simply identified himself as Bright, while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune carpeted the Federal Government and the Minister of Education for what he described as “uncaring attitude”
When contacted , the image maker in charge of the state police command , Ngozi Braide said that she was not aware of any protest and promised to find out from the appropriate authority.
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