By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has berated the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige on his purported comments that lecturers are presently sitting at home playing Ludo despite the rampaging COVID 19 pandemic in the country.
The uunion in a statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan
signed by the Ibadan ASUU Zonal Coordinator, Professor Ade Adejumo described the Minister’s comment “as reckless and uncharitable”.
ASUU pointed out that “in a clime of responsible governance and leadership, the government will be making moves to meet the demands of the Union to get the strike suspended.
The union maintained that contrary to Dr Ngige’s claim ” members of the Union have been making giant inventions and playing frontline role in the fight against COVID-19 even when they have to contribute their money to develop ventilators because they have “irresponsible government that has refused to fund and invest in research.”
“We are constrained to respond to the Minister’s uncharitable claim that Nigerian academics have been sitting down “at home playing Ludo and drafts and other games’ instead of conducting research for the discovery of new drugs and equipment for combating COVID-19 is least expected of someone who wears the garb of concilliator general of Nigeria. Such reckless statements has made him unqualified to stand as third party neutral in labour matters in Nigeria,” it said
The union stressed, “. In saner climes, he would have been advised to resign from his position or be removed ignominy. Records are available everywhere to show that most meaningful interventions on combanting the corona virus in Nigeria today are still being led academics in many states with the support of ASUU, even in the face of the general strike. We do this because we are aware of our responsibilities to the society as contained in our principles and laws.Chris Ngige should tell Nigerians how committed is the government to funding research activities in our universities”
ASUU noted that in a saner clime, “people like Ngige would have resigned or become ex-Minister as a conciliator general of a government that lacks the will to honor Memorandum of Actions (MoAs) signed with the Union”, adding that .the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the wickedness of the leadership of Nigeria who votes 8percent of her 2020 budget to education as against 26percent prescribed by UNICEF.”
On the accusation against ASUU by the Accountant General of the Federation, ASUU declared that the accountant general should be bold enough to account for the corruption surrounding the IIPIS as exposed by the Union rather than boasting on trampling of the university Autonomy Act by forcefully enrolling her members into the fraudulent platform.
The Union then challenged the AGF should invite EFCC to arrest those who supplied fictitious names to the IPPIS stating that members of the Union do not prepare salaries nor work in Bursary department of institutions.
“The AGF should tell the nation why he has turned deaf ears to all the well documented sharp practices and brazen corruption associated with IPPIS that he is stoutly defending. The latest vituperations of the AGF against ASUU are akin to the desperation of a drowning man who clutches at anything to stay afloat. Now that his gross incompetence has been exposed to the whole world over the tragic collapse of his pet project (IPPIS), he thinks the best option for him is to start throwing blind punches at ASUU whom he considers responsible for his woes”,
ASUU added, “. If the AGF is honourable, he has only two options open to him. The first honourable option for him is to eat the humble pie, own up to the short-comings of IPPIS, apologise to the Nigerian workers to whom his tragic short-sightedness has caused unmitigated hardship and wind down the platform. The other option for him is to honourably throw in the towel for the monumental embarrassment that he has become to the government and the nation. To us, the AGF’s rantings here is reminiscent of the case of the foolish man afflicted by the embarrassing plague of leprosy but he is busy looking for antidote for eczema.”
