Hundreds
of heavily armed police drafted from formations around Calabar, the
Cross River State capital on Monday barricaded the main gate and other
entrances to the University of Calabar to stop members of the Academic
Staff Union of Universities, ASUU from carrying out a planned city walk.
The
police, led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of
operations, , Nnange Itam took over the entrances to the University of
Calabar as early as 6am to carry out what they called order from above.
(More Pics after cut).
He
said the lecturers are free to carry out any demonstration or action
within the confines of the University “but marching outside this place
would not be allowed and we have spelt out that to the leadership of the
union.” he said.
Dr.
James Ikpiliya, ASUU Chairman of the University of Calabar said the
planned city walk/enlightenment campaign was called by both the
University of Calabar and the Cross River State University of Technology
CRUTECH chapters of the union to enlighten the public on their demands.
“This
is the final battle to save education in our country and the city walk
was to go round major cities in Calabar to clear the air on the
blackmail and misinformation carried out by the Federal Government that
ASUU was on strike for their selfish interest and personal
aggrandizement which is not true”.
He
said the lecturers are not demanding for increase in salary as the
people are being made to believe but that ASUU is asking for the
implementation of the other nine items on the Agreement the union had
with the Federal Government in 2009.
“Out
of the ten items on the Agreement between the Federal Government us in
2009, only one item has been implemented and that is salary increase for
the lecturers, so if the issue is on salary increase we would not be
here but we are asking for the implementation of other nine issues
amongst which is the improvement on the infrastructure in our
universities”.
Reiterating
the essence for the transformation of the sordid infrastructure in the
universities, Ikpliya said it has come to a situation where “Students
who are studying physics and chemistry do not know what a Bunsen Burner
is and what a tripod looks like; it is this terrible situation in our
universities that ASUU is fighting for and the Federal Government is
calling it politics.”
According
to Ikpiliya, the Federal Government can go ahead and implement the
no-work-no-pay policy but when the chips are down, the union would
implement the no-pay-no work policy.
“Any
government that does not pay attention to education is a failure and no
hunger policy can drive us back to the classrooms to face the same
situation that we are protesting against; from the action of this
government that is terming ASUU fight for better infrastructure in our
universities for the children of the market women as politics, the
Jonathan government is a failure”.
Also
speaking, Professor Festus Iyayi, the past Chairman of ASUU, said
government is being intransigent by refusing to obey an Agreement that
the Secretary to Government, Pius Anyim personally drafted on behalf of
government and assured would be implemented by the latter.
He
said Anyim personally drafted that Agreement that every year the
government would release the sum of 400 billion naira for the
development of infrastructure in the universities but government later
reneged saying what was agreed was 100 billion naira”.
He
said, “Our negotiation took three years, 2 months ago we had a
committee meeting in the Senate convened and presided by Mrs. Chukwu
Merije and I was shocked when Pius Anyim got there and claimed ownership
of the document but when we began talking about the content he said I
put in that document 100 billion Naira to be provided to the Education
sector and Mrs. Chukwu Merije asked him if he did not cross check the
document because in her copy it’s 400 billion Naira that is written,
where did your one hundred billion come from?
“Anyim
then turned to us and said ASUU you people are intellectuals I believe
you can help him find a way to explain how the figure changed, after
that meeting we had several other meetings which was all set up by the
enemies of educational progress. Even when we met with the Vice
President of the country Arch. Namadi Sambo, he pleaded for us to return
to classroom saying that when he was the Governor of Kaduna State he
did a lot for the education sector, that they will give us the 500
billion Naira but it became clear that he is part of the game the
government is playing.”
He
described the governor of Benue State as a contractor, “The governor of
Benue State, Mr. Gabriel Suswan is a scandalous contractor even when
the money was far from materializing he had already proposed and
recommended several contractors to build hostels in our tertiary
institution with 1.4 million Naira per bed space and he boosted that he
has already built such in his institution which is outrageous and when
we presented it to the Vice President he promised to look into it but
nothing has been done. People keep saying that ASUU should call off the
strike but none is telling the Federal Government to keep its part of
the bargain which its own secretary drew.
“The
road is tough but we must get there, many will be injured but the
sacrifice is worth it even if it means driving my car as a taxi I will,
just to care for my family until the right thing is done. The hunger
tactics used cannot stop us but let’s keep the ball rolling, let us not
stop until we achieve our goals because it is the only thing we can do
now to salvage our educational system and save our country’s future
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