ASUU Strike: If Military Failed, FG Will Fail - Falana

The Federal Government has directed the Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, to deploy policemen to all federal universities in the country  in its bid to ensure  resumption of academic activities in universities on or before December 4.
Reacting to the latest development, Mr Femi Falana [SAN], said  President Goodluck Jonathan should call Wike  to order in the interest of the education system.
He said if Wike had familiarised himself with FG/ASUU face-off in the past two decades, even under the defunct military junta, he would have discovered that ASUU members had never been cowed to submission.
He said: “In 1992, the Ibrahim Babangida junta fired all lecturers and threatened to eject them from their official quarters. When the lecturers defied the junta a decree was promulgated which made strike by teachers a treasonable felony. ASUU also ignored the obnoxious decree  and called off the bluff of the military dictators. But at the end of the day it became clear to the regime that universities could not be run like military barracks. Hence the junta swallowed its pride, withdrew its empty threats and decided to honour the agreement which it had rejected.’’
It was learnt this development was disclosed  at  an emergency meeting   the Federal Government held  with  all vice-chancellors of federal universities at the National Universities Commission building in Abuja on Friday.
 The Acting Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, and the Executive Secretary of the NUC, Prof Julius Okojie, were also at the meeting.
Though Friday’s meeting was held behind closed doors, a source at the meeting who craved anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the press, said that the Federal Government  directed the IG  to draft policemen to federal universities to prevent members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities from disturbing some of their members that might want to resume work in line with government’s directive.
The meeting, further learnt, also  discussed other  modalities for calling off the bluff of ASUU whose members  have been on strike for over five months.
The Friday meeting began at 9am and lasted for two hours. Part of the meeting’s deliberation.
It also centred on how to recruit new lecturers to fill the space of ASUU members who might refuse to obey government’s  directive.
 Also, the vice-chancellors were directed to call students back to campus on Sunday in preparation  for academic activities which should start on Monday.
Wike, had on Thursday  ordered  lecturers to resume duties on or before December 4 or face being sacked summarily by the Federal Government.
Okojie had been mandated to  start the process of recruiting new lecturers by placing vacancy adverts in international journals and media.
Also, the vice-chancellors were directed  to open registers in their institutions where ASUU members that resume work would sign so that those who failed to resume could be sacked.
Our correspondent further learnt that the Federal Government was planning to adopt the Ghanaian method where lecturers were asked to re-apply for their jobs after two years of strike.
“Not all lecturers are members of ASUU. Most professors don’t belong to the union,  people think every lecturer in public university is a member of ASUU, which is not true. Government means business this time around and it is going to call  off the bluff of ASUU,’’ the source explained.
Nigerian universities are currently in need of at least 30,000 lecturers because of acute shortage of lecturers in the university system.
There are also indications that the Federal Government and university lecturers may be heading for a clash as the  December 4 deadline given by the Federal Government for the lecturers to return to work is also the date set aside by ASUU to bury a former President of the union, Prof. Festus Iyayi.
Iyayi died in a ghastly auto accident along the Abuja-Lokoja Road when the vehicle in which he was travelling had a collision with the convoy of Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State on November 12, 2013.
The former ASUU chairman was on his way to Kano to attend a crucial meeting of the union which was called to deliberate on the Federal Government’s offer to the lecturers.
The Federal Government had claimed it decided to go tough on ASUU because the union made fresh demands  in its letter to the government as  a condition for calling  off the lingering strike action.
ASUU had demanded payment of the four-month salary arrears of its members from July when the strike commenced and the release  of N200bn that President Goodluck Jonathan promised to inject into the university system within the next two weeks.
The union also said the agreement reached between it and the Federal Government should be signed by the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General of the Federation, while the money should be lodged with the Central Bank.