The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has said with strict adherence to safety protocols on COVID-19, all schools in the country, including tertiary institutions, should be reopened by the Federal Government.
This was contained in a press statement endorsed by the Coordinator, NANS Zone D, South-West, Comrade Kappo Samuel Olawale, and the Public Relations Officer, Comrade Olatunji Nurudeen Solace, made available in Lagos.
In the statement, the student body noted that though the pandemic hit many nations across the globe, Nigeria should take appropriate steps to remedy the situation and let the society run as seamless as possible.
NANS noted that feelers from students across the country indicated that many were becoming restless and frustrated and advised the Federal Government to consider reopening of tertiary institutions with strict adherence to safety measures put in place by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19.
“We understand the serious havoc the ravaging Coronavirus has wreaked. We are not unaware of the whooping sum of money the Federal Government has spent on the treatment of infected Nigerians. It’s a clear fact that our economy has been greatly affected. Many Nigerians have been killed by the dreaded Coronavirus. We are all depressed considering the destruction caused by the pandemic. It’s our hope that Coronavirus would be a thing of the past soon.
“While we applaud President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government for constituting a dedicated and tireless Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, we also applaud some state governors for the reopening of schools for students in final classes in secondary schools and technical colleges, and for reopening worship centers, market places, and shops.
“However, we are sad about seeing Nigerian students sleeping and waiting without going to school for academic activities. We have received enormous complaints from our colleagues. Some are considering staging massive protests against the government, while some are considering other means of tackling the government over the issue.
We want to assure our colleagues that we are not unmindful of how they feel, but we don’t want a situation that would expose our colleagues to the pandemic. We are assuring our colleagues to rest assured that we are loyal to them and not negotiating or mortgaging their interests with the government or anybody.
“There should be no reasons for school closure when other activities are ongoing. Federal Government can reopen school by ensuring social distancing, reduction of numbers of students that would attend class per lecture. Students can attend the lecture in batches as it would be done to those in exit class
“We, therefore, appeal to the Federal Government to ruminate on our position and give it an instantaneous consideration. Our desk is filled with messages, comments, denigration, appreciation, and invaluable submissions from our colleagues. It would be our joy as students’ commanders and leaders in the South-West if our position is fairly treated and approved.
“Conclusively, Nigerian students need to be fervent in prayers. We have only witnessed the inception of this ravaging pandemic. We need to pray fervently for it to become a thing of the past. We appreciate Nigerian students for the support and monumental confidence reposed in us. We promise to be more proactive in our dealings and remain loyal to the students who gave us the mandate to lead them,” the statement read.
With N138.62 approved by the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) as ex-depot price for a litre of petrol, the stage is set for Nigerians to pay more for petrol.
Many filling stations in Lagos were shut on Tuesday in anticipation of the price hike.
National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Abubakar Maigandi told newsmen that the PPPRA raised the depot price from N132/N133 per litre by N6 per litre.
According to him, the agency has approved an ex-depot N138.62 per litre price for this month.
A source, who was also part of the meeting for the monthly prices review said the agency did not come up with a new pump price. “We are yet to know the new dealer prices,” the source said.
But, a PPPRA source said the Federal Government was silent on the dealer prices which may be between N145. 68 and N150 per litre.
According to the source, the product has been deregulated and the government would not want to interfere with it or be seen to be insensitive to the plight of the customers by announcing a price hike.
The source said: “The government is weighing the option of outright announcement of the increase of the dealer prices to a band of N150 per litre in the face of the current hardship. On the other hand, it has resisted the temptation of not interfering with the market fundamentals which determine the price review.”
The clearest symptom of true madness is when a man burns down his own home stead (African Proverb).
Education in every sense is said to be one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
However, Nigeria ’ s education is crumbling . Some even say it has crumbled . University teachers are distraught but in no mood for any compromise after years of broken promises by successive governments. The die is cast and for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) , it is no retreat , no surrender.
Hundreds of students in tertiary institutions across the country are currently seething with anger. Some are sulking in their respective closets, claiming they have genuine reasons to be sad – that they have been at home for a long while – some for an upward of five months simply idling away. Their nemeses are the ongoing strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the vicious effects of the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria as a country has continued to persevere under the burden of bad governance, political charlatanism and, most painfully, the deleterious role of the political class. And the reason for this is simple: for the past three or four decades, those who are charged with the duty of guarding public patrimony have deliberately abrogated their responsibilities; those who occupy positions of power are parochial, insincere and incompetent. The Nigerian nation has continued to travel on reverse gear because its journey is bedeviled by untruths, deceit and thwarted dreams and desires. Honesty, honor, truth and humanistic sympathy have all but taken leave of the ruling class and the citizens have been reduced to mere playthings in the hands of the rulers. However, let me not spend much time about Nigerian leadership only, let me turn to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as both are the main focus of my story.
The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.
It is very clear to anybody with two eyes that in the year 2001 precisely, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with the union of university teachers (ASUU). The chief intention of that agreement was to fund Nigerian universities properly in order to revitalize and burnish them to international standards. But from the regime of Obasanjo to that of Yar’Ádua, to Jonathan and Buhari, it has been the same drama of sham, indifference and disdain. Promises were made but not fulfilled, negotiations began and were stopped only to begin again and stop. For the past two decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the ASUU- FGN agreement seriously, sincerely and honorably. From 2001 to date, the rot in the university system has also continued unhindered; from 2001 to date the university teachers have embarked on several warning strikes and an indefinite strike all in an attempt to press the Nigerian government to tread the path of honor by respecting its promises. Now, as I write presently, Nigerian university teachers have embarked on an indefinite strike since March, 2020 for the same reasons: adequate and proper funding of Nigerian universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances and University autonomy among others.
This time, it is over the move by the federal government towards ensuring that all its workers, including lecturers in federal universities, are enrolled under the unified salary scheme – Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). But we consider it a shame that ASUU would continue to blackmail the federal government on an issue bordering on transparency and accountability.
The federal government had conceptualised IPPIS in 2006 to centralise the payment of salaries of workers with a view to detecting fraud. Since then, the university lecturers have refused to be enrolled in the programme. At various times, there were interventions by the leadership of the National Assembly prevailing on the lecturers to dialogue with the federal government on the issue. While there were indeed negotiations, the decision by ASUU to insist on not complying with IPPIS remains the sticking point. Except ASUU members have something to hide, they should be at the forefront of supporting the introduction of digital payrolls in the public service since it has helped to reduce the fraud of multiple payments to ghost workers. The union cannot be an advocate of transparency and accountability only when it concerns others in the public sector.
Specifically, the mission of IPPIS is to pay FGN employees on – time and accurately within statutory and contractual obligations IPPIS Vision is to have a centralised payroll system that meet the needs of FGN employees and helps the Government to plan and manage payroll budget by ensuring proper control. Even as we are made aware of the aforementioned , another plank of the debate against the continuation or implementation of the IPPIS in the Federal University system as canvassed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities is that the scheme has been hijacked by some forces bent on perpetuating fraud. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU ) described the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a “ tunnel created to siphon government resources . ” In a statement recently in Akure , the ASUU branch chairman , Federal University of Technology , Akure ( FUTA) , Dr . Olayinka Awopetu, claimed IPPIS was “ a weapon of fraud and corruption. ”
For me, I think this criticism of Academic Staff Union of Universities can be likened to attempting to throw the baby with the bathwater.
Indeed, as ASUU continues to oppose IPPIS, pertinent questions remain unanswered. What really is the basis of the fear of the lecturers? Is it because it will block the opportunity of lecturing in more than one university and drawing salaries from more than one university, as some commentators have suggested? These are the issues the leadership of the university academic union needs to ponder and remember the saying that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. While nothing stops academics as experts in designated fields from offering their services to multiple universities, such services must not violate their contracts with their primary employers.
ASUU should also consider the fact that strike should not be its first resort on any matter. The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies, or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa. The leadership of the union should reflect on the pains Nigerian students have been going through in recent years. Those past strikes resulted in monumental loss to the nation’s university system as well as the economy.
The university lecturers should not add to the myriad of problems facing the country. Besides, it should worry the current leadership of ASUU that a once vibrant organisation that set agenda for national discourse in its heyday has degenerated into a strike-obsessed trade union that does not want to be accountable to the people. University lecturers are not above accountability. Their members must submit to IPPIS.
Lamentably, ASUU has earned the wrath of the Nigerian public as an intransigent, strike-prone and insensitive union for embarking on strikes to draw attention to the problems of university education in Nigeria. This kind of attitude is not surprising, it is only amazing. Here in Nigeria, the irony of strike is that strike is the only language the Nigerian government can understand. Again, many unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public think that ASUU strikes are meant to demand for higher pay or salaries. But this is the grossest falsehood. One of the strategies Nigerian governments (past and present) have adopted, though without success, to punish and muzzle ASUU has been the stoppage of salaries. Obasanjo’s regime stopped ASUU salaries for close to eight months, that of Jonathan stopped ASUU salaries for six months and the Buhari government has done that for five months. The stoppage of salaries is usually a deliberate ploy to make ASUU hungry and miserable so that the Union will cower at the negotiating table. But ASUU is a union that has been hardened by hunger and it can always wear courage like a shield.
It is yet to be seen how the crisis will be finally resolved. But in the meantime, students , their parents , and guardians are the worst-hit as ASUU and the government spar over an agreement that is a decade-long .
As a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not returning to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school.
The strike has caused many to be ideal, like the popular saying: “an ideal man is the devil’s workshop.”
During the period of strike, students, as a result of their idleness and frustration, engage in deviant behavior like robbery, arson, rape, touting and constitute nuisance to the society. When they are apprehended, their academics are abruptly truncated. In the years past, the country had been made to suffer immense loss of brains to other countries. It is still happening, as a result of their search for greener pastures. With this marginal loss, few remaining ones are inadequate to build up the academic performance of the students (Obasanjo, 2000).
Learning in Universities has been made irregular and this may have strong impact on the students as students-may have forgotten what they have learnt before the disruption of an academic session upon their resumption to school. Memory is lost if what is being learnt is not reactivated over time. Statistical reports have shown that majority of failures in University are recorded in examinations taken immediately after students return from a long break. The situation witnessed in the University academics has resulted in the turning out of half-baked graduates into the labor market. These half-baked produced cannot live up to expectation in their various chosen professions. This is as a result of poor learning necessitated by poor services from aggrieved lecturers. Students have developed lack of interest in academics because of the usual long stay away from school; instead they indulge in frivolous activities (Adeniran, 2000). Contributory to this is the fact that the condition in which many of these students learn in some of the university is deplorable.
Most parents and students have lost interest in the educational system in Nigeria, as those who can afford education outside the country have started making moves towards it. Some soon to be parents have vowed that their children will not school in this system.
Some parents who has provided the basic amenities for their kids on campus will go through the stress of re-providing, as most student have consumed their resources, while some other perishables will perish as a result of the extension. Failure to re-provide on the part of the parents will result in the kids suffering during the remaining period of the semester should the strike be called off.
It has been proven that students perform less in examinations after returning from a strike period. Most student do not read during strike periods, while others tend to forget key points from lectures as a result of the long wait between lectures and examinations.
The rich who can afford private varsities sends their kids there, where their academic calendar in unaffected, the poor who cannot afford it tends to spend more years on campus as a result of strike, this make the rich kids graduate before the poor kids and as a result of this be ahead in some aspects of life.
Pregnancy rate as well as abortion rate among students have increased significantly. Many students still around campus vicinity are seen swotting with the opposite sex as this period of no academic activities make it possible for them to bond better.
A Plea to ASUU and FG; Lets Save The Future of Our Nigerian Students
EXCERPT:
Thisday(Doki report) The Sun report Guardian Newspaper Wikipedia nairaproject.com ; steemit.com
The clearest symptom of true madness is when a man burns down his own home stead (African Proverb).
Education in every sense is said to be one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
However, Nigeria ’ s education is crumbling . Some even say it has crumbled . University teachers are distraught but in no mood for any compromise after years of broken promises by successive governments. The die is cast and for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) , it is no retreat , no surrender.
Hundreds of students in tertiary institutions across the country are currently seething with anger. Some are sulking in their respective closets, claiming they have genuine reasons to be sad – that they have been at home for a long while – some for an upward of five months simply idling away. Their nemeses are the ongoing strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the vicious effects of the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria as a country has continued to persevere under the burden of bad governance, political charlatanism and, most painfully, the deleterious role of the political class. And the reason for this is simple: for the past three or four decades, those who are charged with the duty of guarding public patrimony have deliberately abrogated their responsibilities; those who occupy positions of power are parochial, insincere and incompetent. The Nigerian nation has continued to travel on reverse gear because its journey is bedeviled by untruths, deceit and thwarted dreams and desires. Honesty, honor, truth and humanistic sympathy have all but taken leave of the ruling class and the citizens have been reduced to mere playthings in the hands of the rulers. However, let me not spend much time about Nigerian leadership only, let me turn to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as both are the main focus of my story.
The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.
It is very clear to anybody with two eyes that in the year 2001 precisely, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with the union of university teachers (ASUU). The chief intention of that agreement was to fund Nigerian universities properly in order to revitalize and burnish them to international standards. But from the regime of Obasanjo to that of Yar’Ádua, to Jonathan and Buhari, it has been the same drama of sham, indifference and disdain. Promises were made but not fulfilled, negotiations began and were stopped only to begin again and stop. For the past two decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the ASUU- FGN agreement seriously, sincerely and honorably. From 2001 to date, the rot in the university system has also continued unhindered; from 2001 to date the university teachers have embarked on several warning strikes and an indefinite strike all in an attempt to press the Nigerian government to tread the path of honor by respecting its promises. Now, as I write presently, Nigerian university teachers have embarked on an indefinite strike since March, 2020 for the same reasons: adequate and proper funding of Nigerian universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances and University autonomy among others.
This time, it is over the move by the federal government towards ensuring that all its workers, including lecturers in federal universities, are enrolled under the unified salary scheme – Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). But we consider it a shame that ASUU would continue to blackmail the federal government on an issue bordering on transparency and accountability.
The federal government had conceptualised IPPIS in 2006 to centralise the payment of salaries of workers with a view to detecting fraud. Since then, the university lecturers have refused to be enrolled in the programme. At various times, there were interventions by the leadership of the National Assembly prevailing on the lecturers to dialogue with the federal government on the issue. While there were indeed negotiations, the decision by ASUU to insist on not complying with IPPIS remains the sticking point. Except ASUU members have something to hide, they should be at the forefront of supporting the introduction of digital payrolls in the public service since it has helped to reduce the fraud of multiple payments to ghost workers. The union cannot be an advocate of transparency and accountability only when it concerns others in the public sector.
Specifically, the mission of IPPIS is to pay FGN employees on – time and accurately within statutory and contractual obligations IPPIS Vision is to have a centralised payroll system that meet the needs of FGN employees and helps the Government to plan and manage payroll budget by ensuring proper control. Even as we are made aware of the aforementioned , another plank of the debate against the continuation or implementation of the IPPIS in the Federal University system as canvassed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities is that the scheme has been hijacked by some forces bent on perpetuating fraud. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU ) described the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a “ tunnel created to siphon government resources . ” In a statement recently in Akure , the ASUU branch chairman , Federal University of Technology , Akure ( FUTA) , Dr . Olayinka Awopetu, claimed IPPIS was “ a weapon of fraud and corruption. ”
For me, I think this criticism of Academic Staff Union of Universities can be likened to attempting to throw the baby with the bathwater.
Indeed, as ASUU continues to oppose IPPIS, pertinent questions remain unanswered. What really is the basis of the fear of the lecturers? Is it because it will block the opportunity of lecturing in more than one university and drawing salaries from more than one university, as some commentators have suggested? These are the issues the leadership of the university academic union needs to ponder and remember the saying that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. While nothing stops academics as experts in designated fields from offering their services to multiple universities, such services must not violate their contracts with their primary employers.
ASUU should also consider the fact that strike should not be its first resort on any matter. The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies, or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa. The leadership of the union should reflect on the pains Nigerian students have been going through in recent years. Those past strikes resulted in monumental loss to the nation’s university system as well as the economy.
The university lecturers should not add to the myriad of problems facing the country. Besides, it should worry the current leadership of ASUU that a once vibrant organisation that set agenda for national discourse in its heyday has degenerated into a strike-obsessed trade union that does not want to be accountable to the people. University lecturers are not above accountability. Their members must submit to IPPIS.
Lamentably, ASUU has earned the wrath of the Nigerian public as an intransigent, strike-prone and insensitive union for embarking on strikes to draw attention to the problems of university education in Nigeria. This kind of attitude is not surprising, it is only amazing. Here in Nigeria, the irony of strike is that strike is the only language the Nigerian government can understand. Again, many unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public think that ASUU strikes are meant to demand for higher pay or salaries. But this is the grossest falsehood. One of the strategies Nigerian governments (past and present) have adopted, though without success, to punish and muzzle ASUU has been the stoppage of salaries. Obasanjo’s regime stopped ASUU salaries for close to eight months, that of Jonathan stopped ASUU salaries for six months and the Buhari government has done that for five months. The stoppage of salaries is usually a deliberate ploy to make ASUU hungry and miserable so that the Union will cower at the negotiating table. But ASUU is a union that has been hardened by hunger and it can always wear courage like a shield.
It is yet to be seen how the crisis will be finally resolved. But in the meantime, students , their parents , and guardians are the worst-hit as ASUU and the government spar over an agreement that is a decade-long .
As a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not returning to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school.
The strike has caused many to be ideal, like the popular saying: “an ideal man is the devil’s workshop.”
During the period of strike, students, as a result of their idleness and frustration, engage in deviant behavior like robbery, arson, rape, touting and constitute nuisance to the society. When they are apprehended, their academics are abruptly truncated. In the years past, the country had been made to suffer immense loss of brains to other countries. It is still happening, as a result of their search for greener pastures. With this marginal loss, few remaining ones are inadequate to build up the academic performance of the students (Obasanjo, 2000).
Learning in Universities has been made irregular and this may have strong impact on the students as students-may have forgotten what they have learnt before the disruption of an academic session upon their resumption to school. Memory is lost if what is being learnt is not reactivated over time. Statistical reports have shown that majority of failures in University are recorded in examinations taken immediately after students return from a long break. The situation witnessed in the University academics has resulted in the turning out of half-baked graduates into the labor market. These half-baked produced cannot live up to expectation in their various chosen professions. This is as a result of poor learning necessitated by poor services from aggrieved lecturers. Students have developed lack of interest in academics because of the usual long stay away from school; instead they indulge in frivolous activities (Adeniran, 2000). Contributory to this is the fact that the condition in which many of these students learn in some of the university is deplorable.
Most parents and students have lost interest in the educational system in Nigeria, as those who can afford education outside the country have started making moves towards it. Some soon to be parents have vowed that their children will not school in this system.
Some parents who has provided the basic amenities for their kids on campus will go through the stress of re-providing, as most student have consumed their resources, while some other perishables will perish as a result of the extension. Failure to re-provide on the part of the parents will result in the kids suffering during the remaining period of the semester should the strike be called off.
It has been proven that students perform less in examinations after returning from a strike period. Most student do not read during strike periods, while others tend to forget key points from lectures as a result of the long wait between lectures and examinations.
The rich who can afford private varsities sends their kids there, where their academic calendar in unaffected, the poor who cannot afford it tends to spend more years on campus as a result of strike, this make the rich kids graduate before the poor kids and as a result of this be ahead in some aspects of life.
Pregnancy rate as well as abortion rate among students have increased significantly. Many students still around campus vicinity are seen swotting with the opposite sex as this period of no academic activities make it possible for them to bond better.
A Plea to ASUU and FG; Lets Save The Future of Our Nigerian Students
EXCERPT: > Thisday(Doki report) > The Sun report > Guardian Newspaper > Wikipedia > nairaproject.com ; steemit.com
The clearest symptom of true madness is when a man burns down his own home stead (African Proverb).
Education in every sense is said to be one of the fundamental factors of development. No country can achieve sustainable economic development without substantial investment in human capital.
However, Nigeria ’ s education is crumbling . Some even say it has crumbled . University teachers are distraught but in no mood for any compromise after years of broken promises by successive governments. The die is cast and for the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU ) , it is no retreat , no surrender.
Hundreds of students in tertiary institutions across the country are currently seething with anger. Some are sulking in their respective closets, claiming they have genuine reasons to be sad – that they have been at home for a long while – some for an upward of five months simply idling away. Their nemeses are the ongoing strike embarked upon by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the vicious effects of the rampaging Coronavirus pandemic.
Nigeria as a country has continued to persevere under the burden of bad governance, political charlatanism and, most painfully, the deleterious role of the political class. And the reason for this is simple: for the past three or four decades, those who are charged with the duty of guarding public patrimony have deliberately abrogated their responsibilities; those who occupy positions of power are parochial, insincere and incompetent. The Nigerian nation has continued to travel on reverse gear because its journey is bedeviled by untruths, deceit and thwarted dreams and desires. Honesty, honor, truth and humanistic sympathy have all but taken leave of the ruling class and the citizens have been reduced to mere playthings in the hands of the rulers. However, let me not spend much time about Nigerian leadership only, let me turn to Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as both are the main focus of my story.
The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.
It is very clear to anybody with two eyes that in the year 2001 precisely, the Nigerian government signed an agreement with the union of university teachers (ASUU). The chief intention of that agreement was to fund Nigerian universities properly in order to revitalize and burnish them to international standards. But from the regime of Obasanjo to that of Yar’Ádua, to Jonathan and Buhari, it has been the same drama of sham, indifference and disdain. Promises were made but not fulfilled, negotiations began and were stopped only to begin again and stop. For the past two decades, no Nigerian leader has dealt with the ASUU- FGN agreement seriously, sincerely and honorably. From 2001 to date, the rot in the university system has also continued unhindered; from 2001 to date the university teachers have embarked on several warning strikes and an indefinite strike all in an attempt to press the Nigerian government to tread the path of honor by respecting its promises. Now, as I write presently, Nigerian university teachers have embarked on an indefinite strike since March, 2020 for the same reasons: adequate and proper funding of Nigerian universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances and University autonomy among others.
This time, it is over the move by the federal government towards ensuring that all its workers, including lecturers in federal universities, are enrolled under the unified salary scheme – Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS). But we consider it a shame that ASUU would continue to blackmail the federal government on an issue bordering on transparency and accountability.
The federal government had conceptualised IPPIS in 2006 to centralise the payment of salaries of workers with a view to detecting fraud. Since then, the university lecturers have refused to be enrolled in the programme. At various times, there were interventions by the leadership of the National Assembly prevailing on the lecturers to dialogue with the federal government on the issue. While there were indeed negotiations, the decision by ASUU to insist on not complying with IPPIS remains the sticking point. Except ASUU members have something to hide, they should be at the forefront of supporting the introduction of digital payrolls in the public service since it has helped to reduce the fraud of multiple payments to ghost workers. The union cannot be an advocate of transparency and accountability only when it concerns others in the public sector.
Specifically, the mission of IPPIS is to pay FGN employees on – time and accurately within statutory and contractual obligations IPPIS Vision is to have a centralised payroll system that meet the needs of FGN employees and helps the Government to plan and manage payroll budget by ensuring proper control. Even as we are made aware of the aforementioned , another plank of the debate against the continuation or implementation of the IPPIS in the Federal University system as canvassed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities is that the scheme has been hijacked by some forces bent on perpetuating fraud. The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU ) described the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) as a “ tunnel created to siphon government resources . ” In a statement recently in Akure , the ASUU branch chairman , Federal University of Technology , Akure ( FUTA) , Dr . Olayinka Awopetu, claimed IPPIS was “ a weapon of fraud and corruption. ”
For me, I think this criticism of Academic Staff Union of Universities can be likened to attempting to throw the baby with the bathwater.
Indeed, as ASUU continues to oppose IPPIS, pertinent questions remain unanswered. What really is the basis of the fear of the lecturers? Is it because it will block the opportunity of lecturing in more than one university and drawing salaries from more than one university, as some commentators have suggested? These are the issues the leadership of the university academic union needs to ponder and remember the saying that he who goes to equity must go with clean hands. While nothing stops academics as experts in designated fields from offering their services to multiple universities, such services must not violate their contracts with their primary employers.
ASUU should also consider the fact that strike should not be its first resort on any matter. The hurried academic calendars, following the end of industrial actions, allow for very little attention to serious studies, or research. That is why our public universities have continued to go down the ladder of academic ranking, even among their peers in Africa. The leadership of the union should reflect on the pains Nigerian students have been going through in recent years. Those past strikes resulted in monumental loss to the nation’s university system as well as the economy.
The university lecturers should not add to the myriad of problems facing the country. Besides, it should worry the current leadership of ASUU that a once vibrant organisation that set agenda for national discourse in its heyday has degenerated into a strike-obsessed trade union that does not want to be accountable to the people. University lecturers are not above accountability. Their members must submit to IPPIS.
Lamentably, ASUU has earned the wrath of the Nigerian public as an intransigent, strike-prone and insensitive union for embarking on strikes to draw attention to the problems of university education in Nigeria. This kind of attitude is not surprising, it is only amazing. Here in Nigeria, the irony of strike is that strike is the only language the Nigerian government can understand. Again, many unsuspecting members of the Nigerian public think that ASUU strikes are meant to demand for higher pay or salaries. But this is the grossest falsehood. One of the strategies Nigerian governments (past and present) have adopted, though without success, to punish and muzzle ASUU has been the stoppage of salaries. Obasanjo’s regime stopped ASUU salaries for close to eight months, that of Jonathan stopped ASUU salaries for six months and the Buhari government has done that for five months. The stoppage of salaries is usually a deliberate ploy to make ASUU hungry and miserable so that the Union will cower at the negotiating table. But ASUU is a union that has been hardened by hunger and it can always wear courage like a shield.
It is yet to be seen how the crisis will be finally resolved. But in the meantime, students , their parents , and guardians are the worst-hit as ASUU and the government spar over an agreement that is a decade-long .
As a result of this strike, most students have secured jobs or other means of generating money and does not wish the strike to be called off soon, some have even planned not returning to classroom as the salary they now receive is large and they are not sure of getting such jobs after school.
The strike has caused many to be ideal, like the popular saying: “an ideal man is the devil’s workshop.”
During the period of strike, students, as a result of their idleness and frustration, engage in deviant behavior like robbery, arson, rape, touting and constitute nuisance to the society. When they are apprehended, their academics are abruptly truncated. In the years past, the country had been made to suffer immense loss of brains to other countries. It is still happening, as a result of their search for greener pastures. With this marginal loss, few remaining ones are inadequate to build up the academic performance of the students (Obasanjo, 2000).
Learning in Universities has been made irregular and this may have strong impact on the students as students-may have forgotten what they have learnt before the disruption of an academic session upon their resumption to school. Memory is lost if what is being learnt is not reactivated over time. Statistical reports have shown that majority of failures in University are recorded in examinations taken immediately after students return from a long break. The situation witnessed in the University academics has resulted in the turning out of half-baked graduates into the labor market. These half-baked produced cannot live up to expectation in their various chosen professions. This is as a result of poor learning necessitated by poor services from aggrieved lecturers. Students have developed lack of interest in academics because of the usual long stay away from school; instead they indulge in frivolous activities (Adeniran, 2000). Contributory to this is the fact that the condition in which many of these students learn in some of the university is deplorable.
Most parents and students have lost interest in the educational system in Nigeria, as those who can afford education outside the country have started making moves towards it. Some soon to be parents have vowed that their children will not school in this system.
Some parents who has provided the basic amenities for their kids on campus will go through the stress of re-providing, as most student have consumed their resources, while some other perishables will perish as a result of the extension. Failure to re-provide on the part of the parents will result in the kids suffering during the remaining period of the semester should the strike be called off.
It has been proven that students perform less in examinations after returning from a strike period. Most student do not read during strike periods, while others tend to forget key points from lectures as a result of the long wait between lectures and examinations.
The rich who can afford private varsities sends their kids there, where their academic calendar in unaffected, the poor who cannot afford it tends to spend more years on campus as a result of strike, this make the rich kids graduate before the poor kids and as a result of this be ahead in some aspects of life.
Pregnancy rate as well as abortion rate among students have increased significantly. Many students still around campus vicinity are seen swotting with the opposite sex as this period of no academic activities make it possible for them to bond better.
A Plea to ASUU and FG; Lets Save The Future of Our Nigerian Students
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The President , Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ) , has ordered the Niger Delta Development Commission to pay its scholarship beneficiaries studying abroad .
This was contained in a statement titled ‘ NDDC invites President Buhari to Commission Signature Project ’ and signed by the NDDC Director , Corporate Affairs , Charles Odili .
The statement quoted Odili as saying, “ Under the Commission ’ s finance protocol , only the Executive Director ( Finance) and the Executive Director ( Projects ) can sign for the release of funds from the Commission ’ s domiciliary accounts with the Central Bank of Nigeria .
“ With the death of Chief Etang, the remittance has to await the appointment of a new EDFA .
“ Senator Akpabio, the Honourable Minister , said President Buhari who has been briefed on the protest by students at the Nigerian High Commission in London , has ordered that all stops be pulled to pay the students by the end of this week. We expect a new EDFA to be appointed this week. As soon as that is done , they would all be paid. ”
The Nigeria Labour Congress , the Trade Union Congress and 80 other organisations , under the aegis of the Alliance for Surviving COVID – 19 and Beyond, has asked the Federal Government to publish terms and conditions of all the loans it had taken .
The group , in a statement by its Chairman , Mr Femi Falana , ( SAN ); the NLC President , Ayuba Wabba and his TUC counterpart , Quadri Olaleye, who are both co – chairmen, threatened a legal action against the government if it failed to publish details of the loans.
Recall that the Minister of Transportation , Rotimi Amaechi, while appearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Treaties, Protocols and Agreements on Tuesday last week , had asked the lawmakers to stop the investigation into the loan obtained from China to finance rail projects in Nigeria .
He warned that the probe would send a wrong signal to China , which could stop the loan , thereby thwarting the rail projects .
But ASCAB in its statement titled, ‘‘ ASCAB demands full disclosure of all loans obtained by Nigeria , ’ said it would “ challenge the authorities in court if the disclosures were not made . ”
The group also urged the National Assembly to reveal the terms and conditions of all external loans.
It said if the National Assembly failed , the Debt Management Office should publish the terms and conditions of all external loans , or face legal fireworks .
ASCAB , which is a coalition of labour and some 80 civil society groups , lamented that Nigeria ’ s debt profile which was N 12 . 118 tn as of May 2015 had leaped to N 27 . 401 tn in 2019 .
It stated that the figure represented more than 100 per cent debt increase adding that by 2020 , the nation had seen an astrological surge in the country’ s external debts .
The group said recent revelations at the National Assembly had confirmed the fact that the loans were taken without proper public scrutiny .
It also noted that a committee of the House of Representatives was feigning ignorance concerning the terms and conditions attached to a particular loan agreement .
ASCAB said the huge debt being incurred for the country had the potential of stifling the prospects of economic liberation and political freedom of the people.
The group said within one year, the National Assembly had approved a total of $ 28 bn loans for the President , Major General Muhammadu Buhari ( retd . ) with no commensurate improvement in the quality of lives of many Nigerians .
The coalition said it was important to ask whether Nigeria really needed the jumbo loans when sources of boosting public funds had either yet to be fully explored or completely ignored
The statement added , “ The country’ s level of poverty continues to increase with the skyrocketing loans obtained by the Federal Government.
“ Poverty, extreme hunger, frivolous lifestyles of public office holders continue to fuel violence and public disorder across the country.
“ Why the government has responded effectively to the needs of public officials including members of the National Assembly, the economic and social needs of the people remain a mirage , ” the coalition said .
The Presidential Task Force on COVID- 19 has asked students with symptoms of COVID- 19 to stay at home as resumption of the Senior Secondary School 3 begins this week nationwide .
The PTF faulted state governments asking students to produce results of their COVID- 19 tests before resumption.
It said instead of compulsory test , which would only be valid for the period the test was conducted, students already showing symptoms of the virus should be asked to stay away.
The task force ’ s national coordinator , Dr Sani Aliyu , said these at the PTF press briefing in Abuja .
In preparation for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination , the SSS 3 students in Ogun and Benue would resume today , while their counterparts in Kano and Ekiti will resume on August 10 .
ShopRite Nigeria has debunked the story making the rounds that it intends to close shop in Nigeria.
The Country Director for Chastex Consult, Ini Archibong, in a telephone conversation with newsmen, said: “Shoprite is not leaving Nigeria.
“We have only just opened to Nigerian investors which we have also been talking to just before now. We are not leaving, who leaves over a $30billion investment and close shop? It doesn’t sound right.
“We only gave this opportunity to Nigeria investors to come in and also help drive our expansion plan in Nigeria. So we are not leaving.
“I have tried to say this to many people as I can. There should be no panic at all and all of that. There is no truth in that report.”
Recall that reports have been circulating that the retail outlet has started a formal process to consider the potential sale of all or a majority of stake in its supermarkets in Nigeria.
The Nigeria Governors Forum has decried the worsening security situation across the country.
Chairman of the forum , Ekiti State Governor , Kayode Fayemi , said this in a statement titled: “
NGF Expresses Solidarity with Governor Zullum and Borno State , ” which he signed and made available to the media , in Abuja .
He expressed gratitude to God for sparing the life of the Borno State Governor , Babagana Zulum , and members of his team who were attacked by Boko Haram terrorists in Borno last week.
The statement read , “ On behalf of the 36 State Governors of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under the platform of the NGF, I write to express our solidarity with you and the people of Borno State , following the attack last Wednesday , by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect .
“ This is one unwarranted attack too many . It epitomises our collective vulnerability and the fragility of the country’ s security architecture .
“ Although you emerged from this incident unscathed, we note with regret the injuries sustained by two members of the Civilian Joint Task Force and a Police Officer attached to your convoy and do accordingly pray for their quick recovery.
“ Mr . Governor, Forum members are resolutely behind you in your effort to rid Borno State of these dastardly and wicked agents of evil .
“ We are appalled by the worsening security situation in the country generally , in – spite of all the efforts of government to end it.
“ On our part , the NEC Sub – Committee on Security will be meeting tomorrow and rising from the resolutions thereof soon dialogue with Mr . President and the nation’ s Security Chiefs to discuss this worrisome and rapidly degenerating situation. ”
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