By KEMI KASUMU
The Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN) has restated its position that the ongoing strike, embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been unnecessarily prolonged and is, therefore, obsolete.
It said ASUU cannot continue to apply the same strategy and expect a different result, even as the state-owned universities’ managers resolved that, in order to maintain international best practices and be recognised among first rated Universities, the governments at Federal and State levels should improve on the funding of their universities and enhance the welfare of the workforce.
COPSUN added that state governments should exercise restraint in establishing new universities but invest heavily on the existing ones to improve on the quality of their infrastructure.
These were contained in a communiqué issued by the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-owned Universities at the end of its 57th quarterly meeting on Tuesday, 13th September 2022 in Abuja, the nation’s capital, and signed by its Secretary, Marcus Awobifa.
The DEFENDER reports that COPSUN had on Monday August 29, 2022 enlightened ASUU that membership of union is voluntary, when it gave its reply to its President, Emmanuel Osodeke, who said some state universities not complying with his group’s strike action are quacks. In a statement by the Secretary of COPSUN, Marcus Awobifa, it described the Osodeke’s statement as “tendentious, ill-conceived and flagrantly unconscionable.”
During the latest meeting held Tuesday September 13 at the Committee of Vice-Chancellor’s Conference Centre in Abuja, COPSUN reviewed the State of the Nation, particularly the ongoing ASUU’s indefinite strike action and made its resolutions.
“1. RESOLVED that to maintain international best practices and be recognized among first rated Universities, the governments at Federal and State levels should improve on the funding of their universities and enhance the welfare of the workforce, adding that state governments should exercise restraint in establishing new universities but invest heavily on the existing ones to improve on the quality of their infrastructure.
“2. SADDENED that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have continued to defy all pleas and entreaties by parents, policy makers and well-meaning Nigerians to call-off its seven month-old industrial action which has heightened tension in the University system, the Pro-Chancellors believed that the damage caused by the disruption in the university System cannot be rebuilt by the reform being sought by the Association.
“3. RECALLED that while it has always supported the call for reform in the education sector, COPSUN restated that the ongoing strike which has been unnecessarily prolonged was obsolete and ASUU cannot continue to apply the same strategy and expect a different result.
“4. OBSERVED that the university system lost over 50 months to strikes since 1999 resulting in elongated academic calendars with the nation paying heavy price, while the students, parents and the university workforce have been put in perpetual position to miss and lose many life opportunities.
“5. RELIEVED that the Federal Government agrees that State Universities have the right to adopt or reject agreement reached with ASUU by the Federal Government because education is on the concurrent legislative list. COPSUN however reiterated that it would not be coerced to adopt hook, line and sinker any agreement to which it was not a party abinitio. It pledged that State-owned universities will continue to negotiate with its employees in accordance with the terms and conditions of their engagements.
“6. ASTOUNDED that 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.
“7. COPSUN urged the political class to give greater attention to education with substantial increase in the budgetary allocation, arguing that education is the key to the future of the country. It further appealed to the various political parties jostling for power to initiate innovative reforms in the education sector in their manifestos in order to part ways with the persistent crisis in the sector,” it said.
