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ASUU  President Dr  Nasir   Fagge , left, and Nigerian Minister of Education  Nyesom   Wike . ( ASUU ; Facebook) The Nigerian federal government called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities ( ASUU ) to end its several-month-long strike and accused the opposition All Progressives Congress of politicizing and manipulating the industrial action. “By the time we finish with the strike, the crisis will take its toll on states as many of them won’t be able to pay allowances,” Minister of Information  Labaran  Maku said, adding that the strike is starting to damage the Nigerian education sector,  reported the  Osun  Defender. He said that some states might not be able to pay allowances on lecturers by the time the strike ends. Maku also accused the All Progressives Congress of manipulating the strike. “I know  ASUU  very well.  ASUU  went into the strike out of the conviction that they would get more ...

The nature of two holes on the late Professor Festus Iyayi’s body gives life to suspicions by his colleagues that he may have been shot. Along with grief, anger will be the dominant emotion when Professor Festus Iyayi is buried this week in his hometown, Ugbegun in Edo State. The two feelings have mixed, predictably with unsavoury outcomes, since the former president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, died on 12 November in an auto accident on the Lokoja-Abuja Expressway. Iyayi was travelling to Kano in the company of three other ASUU members for a meeting on the ongoing strike by members of the union when a police escort van in the convoy of the Governor Idris Wada of Kogi State rammed into the bus the university teachers were travelling. Iyayi died instantly, while three his colleagues were seriously injured. Wada, who was severely injured in an accident involving his convoy last year, was widely criticised by ASUU and the wider public for his failure to lea...

The striking Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Nigerian government’s ‘Back to Class’ order, describing it as a political blackmail. The government had on November 28 threatened to sack lecturers that failed to resume duties by December 4. Responding to the seven day ultimatum issued by the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, the union maintained that it would not be cowed by the threat. “We shall never succumb to this. Our country is our union’s constituency. We shall bow only to what we, as academics, are convinced will serve the interest of Nigeria and its people,” the National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Mr. Nasir Faggae, told reporters on Monday in Abuja. The Federal Government, in a meeting with the uinon, agreed to deposit part of the funds that the union had requested for the revitalisation of public universities in Nigeria to meet international standard. President Goodluck Jonathan and the ...

A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Festus Iyayi , died on Tuesday in a car crash on Lokoja-Abuja Expressway. Iyayi was returning from a meeting in one of the Northern ASUU chapters when the accident occurred. He was in company with some ASUU leaders and they were said to be returning from Kano where they sought the views of members on ending the four-month-old ASUU strike. Daily Times could not confirm the total number of casualties in the crash. However, his death has led to the postment of ASUU's executive meeting, which was to have met Wednesday to decide whether they should call of their four-month old strike. According to Dele Momodu's tweet ASUU will assemble on the 15th of January for another meeting, so unfortunate and we hope another member doesn't kick the bucket, or else it will be rescheduled for December of that same year  

EMOTIONS filled Jerusalem International Conference Centre on Sunday as President Goodluck Jonathan led thousands of pilgrims in an interdenominational church service which recorded a number of miraculous healings to pray for peace and development in Nigeria. Tagged: A Day With Jesus For Nigeria in Israel, the service was used to ask God for forgiveness of sins committed in Nigeria. The Centre was jammed and the service which lasted for five hours was attended by cabinet ministers and some state governors which include those of Plateau (Jonah Jang), Ebonyi (Martin Elechi), Akwa Ibom (Godswill Akpabio), Cross River (Liyel Imoke), Benue (Gabriel Suswan) and Delta (Emmanuel Uduaghan). Some deputy governors were also in attendance. Notable religious leaders were equally present. They were led by the president of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. The General Overseer of Dunamis International Ministry, Dr. Paul Enenche who took his text from Psalm 122...

Protest by Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Uyo branch, was yesterday foiled by the police. Just before the commencement of the rally, officers of the Akwa Ibom Police Command arrived at the venue and blocked the university gate from Ikpa road with their vehicles. The march tagged Public Awareness Rally and led by UNIYO ASUUU Chairman, Dr.Nwachukwu Ayim, was scheduled to take off outside the school gate at the Town Campus of the university. But refusing to be deterred by the action of the police, the members marched on to adjoining streets, chanting solidarity songs and displaying their pamphlet and placards to motorists, traders and passers-by. Speaking, Ayim stated that the rally was organized as part of the ongoing efforts by the body to safeguard the university system from total collapse and correct insinuations of what he described as ‘’uninformed and mischief makers’’ members of the public that ASUU was making selfish and outrageous demands. ...

  As the current strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) enters its fourth month, President Goodluck Jonathan has again pleaded with the striking lecturers to call off their action in the interest of the students and parents at home. President Jonathan made the call  Saturday during the inauguration and dedication of  the College of Engineering Building at Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), as part of activities marking the first convocation ceremony of the institution. He urged the striking lecturers to temper anger with patriotism if only in the interest of the students who have been at home since the face- off between the teachers and the Federal Government began about four months ago.

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has stated that the Federal and State Governments were responsible for the ongoing ASUU strike, as well as threats of other strikes by different unions in the country. While blaming the government for failing to abide by agreements reached with different unions in the country, it hailed the sustained action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). The acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Chris Uyot, in an interview with THISDAY, said ASUU deserved more attention than it is currently receiving, as it has to do with the improvement of facilities and standard of education in the country. “ASUU is our affiliate and for every step they have taken, we have been with them; we have been briefed. The NLC is as invested in this case as ASUU itself. The vice-president has been appointed to take over the negotiations and the ball is now in the court of the government as it were. We do not think that the government has given it the type o...

The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday faulted the statement credited to the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala, that the union demanded for N92bn, describing the claim as false. ASUU said it never demanded such amount as earned allowances in the 2009 agreement it reached with the Federal Government. Okonjo-Iweala had on Wednesday in Minna, said the Federal Government couldn’t meet the N92bn allowances as demanded by ASUU. The university lecturers, in a statement by the University of Ibadan branch chairman, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye, described the amount mentioned by the minister as “a the imagination of the minister.” Ajiboye explained that the earned allowances, the union and the governemnt calculated in the 2009 agreement, amounted to N87b, which covered allowances for three and half years for the lecturers in the nation’s universities. He said, the N87bn was a compromise made by ASUU to scale down from N127bn. He added that the N87bn was computed ...

There appears to be no end in sight for the on-going strike embarked upon by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities as the Federal Government has declared that it does not have the resources to meet the financial demands of the University lecturers. The Minister of Finance, Dr. Okonjo Iweala indicated this in her speech at the opening of a two-day meeting of Commissioners of Finance and Accountants Generals of states ministries of Finance in Minna. She noted that the N92 billion being demanded by the University lecturers is not within the reach of the Federal Government. ‘At present, ASUU wants the federal government to pay N92bn in extra allowances, when resources are not there and when we are working to integrate past increases in pensions. We need to make choices in this country as we are getting to the stage where recurrent expenditures take the bulk of our resources and people get paid but can do no work’. She stated that if the demands of the university lectu...

Hopes of quick resolution of the present face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities were dashed some minutes ago as the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the government has no resources to meet the union demands. Foreclosing possible truce to the five-week old industrial action that has paralysed academic activities in the nation’s ivory towers, Okonjo-Iwela said the striking university lecturers were asking for #92 billion in extra allowances, maintaining that government lack means of picking the bill. Speaking in Minna at the annual National Council on Finance and Economic Development meeting, the minister said that ASUU demand was coming at a time government was making efforts at reducing the structure of public expenditures. The theme of the meeting is: “Restructuring Nigeria’s Finances.” She said, “At present ASUU wants the government to pay N92 billion in extra allowances when resources are not there and when ...