FG threatens to sack ASUU members by December 4th

Supervisory minister of Education, Nyesom Wike has
threatened members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities with sack if they refuse to resume by
December 4th.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Wike said, "Vice-
chancellors should ensure that staff who resume for
work are provided with the enabling environment for
academic and allied activities.
"Any academic employee who fails to resume on or
before December 4, 2013 automatically ceases to be
an employee of the institution.
"Vice-chancellors are also directed to advertise
vacancies (internal and external) in their institutions.
"The National Universities Commission is hereby
directed to monitor the compliance of these
directives by the various institutions."
He said government was forced to take the decision
in the best interest of the country after being faced
with outrageous new demands from ASUU.
Wike said, "To start with, the agreement you (ASUU)
said the Federal Government should comply with,
was it the AGF that signed it? It was signed by the
Federal Ministry of Education led by the Permanent
Secretary. The AGF was not even part of the
negotiation.
"We have made every effort to see that students go
back to their schools. Each time government made
frantic effort, you would hear one reason or the other
(from ASUU). For us, we cannot continue to see this
thing happens. We will continue to make sure that
we stick to all we have agreed to do.
"If you cannot believe Mr. President, then who would
you discuss with again? Mr. President cannot sit
down for 13 hours having a discussion and at the end
of the day the only thing you can do is to attach
some new conditions.
"I don't think that is acceptable to us. All we have
promised them, we are going to do; we won't go
back. But bringing new conditions, we don't think it
is favourable. We don't think it is for the good of this
country."
Wike said government had made many concessions
to ASUU, including providing N10 billion extra
allowances in addition to N30 billion already
released.
"We all agreed. ASUU said we should put the
resolution down. That was done and signed by the
permanent secretary," he said.
"The Federal Government has met all its
commitments and obligations with respect to the
2009 Agreement. We appeal to all stakeholders to
appreciate the position of the government which is in
the best interest of our dear country."
"As a responsible government, we cannot allow the
continuous closure of our public universities for this
length of time as this poses danger to the education
system, the future of our youths and national
development", he added.