THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has condemned the recent position of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities (COPSUN) suggesting to the federal government to uphold its no-work-no-pay policy against striking university lecturers.
ASUU described COPSUN’s position as a “double-speak” and accused it of mischief.
In a statement by the convener of ASUU’s Rapid Response Team, Prof Ade Adejumo, the union said the responsibilities of the academic is way beyond teaching, noting other major activities including research and community service. The union said the two other responsibilities never stopped even as the strike lingers.
“It is very worrisome that COPSUN has condemnably reduced the work of a lecturer to that of teaching! Hence, its position that academics on strike don’t deserve to be paid,” it said.
ASUU added that it is illogical for COPSUN, which it claimed has several times opposed ASUU’s struggle to align with it in kicking against proliferation of universities by state governments, to turn around to condemn the same conduct of the government.
ASUU also knocked COPSUN for blaming the union for the prolonged strike and elongated academic calendars in Nigerian universities, saying the government’s failure to fund the universities and uphold the agreements it had signed freely with the union has been the major driver of the strikes.
It added that COPSUN should rather be worried about the state of the public universities rather than the elongated academic calendar.
“If COPSUN is sincere about its position on these issues, it is thus a categorical imperative for the body, if it desires to be taken serious by all right-thinking Nigerians, to eat the humble pie and join our union to collectively struggle to achieve these progressive goals without which our public universities are mortally doomed.
“It is, to say the least, disappointingly sad that COPSUN which is justifiably saddened that Nigerian public universities have experienced elongated academic calendars since 1999, lacks the courage to put the blame squarely where it property belongs, that is, the failure of government to fund these universities properly as well as government’s irresponsible disregard for the sanctity of agreement it freely entered with universities,” said ASUU.
ASUU further condemned COPSUN’s comment that agreements signed with the federal government would not be binding on the state-owned universities, wondering why COPSUN has not rejected policies by federal regulatory bodies such as the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB), the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Youth Services Corps (NYSC).
ASUU said it is a union that upholds its responsibility, “and it is to see to the welfare of our members.”
“As pro-chancellors of state universities, they are always eager to run to Abuja to collect money from TETFUND which was brought into existence by ASUU, but they hate the union with passion…The logical conclusion of COPSUN here is for them to tell the federal government to excuse them from accessing all the interventions from TETFUND.
“If we may ask further, are the perks of office that most of these pro-chancellors enjoy not centrally determined?
“What is expected of COPSUN at this critical juncture is to borrow a leaf from their colleagues at the federal universities by calling on the government to do the needful to address issues in ASUU’s demands rather than stoking the embers of a simmering blaze as they have done here.”
National Record had reported earlier this week that COPSUN’s criticism of ASUU for not suspending the ongoing strike, saying the strike option is obsolete.
“The lecturers that abandoned classes for almost an academic session are clamouring for salaries they did not work for, the Pro-Chancellors called on the Federal Government to be courageous to enforce the extant rule on “no work no pay” as failure to apply rules in the past led to impunity in our society,” the group said in a communique issued at the end of its quarterly meeting on Wednesday.
