The Education Rights Campaign (ERC), has refuted the statement made by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth and Student Matters, Mr. Jude Imagwe, that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is being economical with the truth on the issues of contention in the on-going strike.
In a press statement, the ERC National Coordinator, Mr. Hassan Soweto said: “It is not ASUU but the Federal government that is keeping students at home and if anyone is lying, it is the Federal Government which failed to honour the 2009 agreement. It shows how those in charge of the affairs of this country have lost touch with reality.
Mr Imagwe wants everyone to believe that if the ASUU strike is indeed about the need to revive public Universities then the striking lecturers should have sheathed their swords since the Federal Government earmarked N100billiom for infrastructural development and released 30 billion for payment of outstanding allowances.”It would be recalled that Imagwe, while speaking to newsmen recently, said: “It is important for the public to know that government did not say this is all that it will give, but government says go and start the payment with this amount and let us know the amount it will add.”
government that does not correspond with the provision of this agreement is null and void; such proposals are insincere and a betrayal of the other party in the agreement. Meanwhile the proposal of N100 billion, which Mr. Imagwe expects ASUU to gratefully accept, is ridiculous considering that the least the agreement stipulated as year-on-year provision for upgrade of facilities in Universities is N400 billion.
One pertinent question which Mr. Imagwe should answer is: How reasonable is the theory that the Federal Government cannot afford N400billion to jumpstart its ailing Universities when the same government once spent a whooping N620 billion to bail President Jonathan, a former University lecturer and his Senior Special Assistant, Mr. Jude Imagwe a former NANS president ought to be more sensitive to the needs of the sector.
He said: “As a former NANS president who now occupies such an exalted office, one expects a more positive contribution from Mr. Imagwe towards the resolution of the crisis rocking the education sector. We respectfully ask Mr Jude Imagwe to do his job properly by advising the President to be honourable not merely in words but also in deeds by implementing agreements reached with ASUU and other unions and to also be sincerely committed to improving the funding of public education.”
