Union Cautioned Over Disobeying Court Order.
By Emegwoako C. Paschal
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been advised by the federal government to cease acting in defiance of the interlocutory injunction issued by the National Industrial Court (NICN), which prohibited the union from taking further action.
It stated that ASUU should stop directing its members to continue the 8-month-old strike in order to circumvent the law.
The Federal Government “strongly frowns at this,” said Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, in a statement issued in Abuja. He described a recent directive from ASUU urging its members to continue the industrial action as unwarranted lawlessness.
However, the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, had claimed that the union’s members were not obligated by the Industrial Court’s order to return to work because the union had filed an appeal against the decision and was still awaiting a hearing on the court’s request for a stay of execution.
But in its most recent statement, the federal government charged that the union’s leadership had misled and threatened to harm its members by disobeying a court order.
The minister once more urged the union to abide by the court order and report to work as the remaining points of contention are settled in negotiations.
Reports that the minister left the meeting between the House of Representatives and ASUU last Thursday, September 29, 2022 were also refuted in the statement signed by the deputy director of press and public relations, Olajide Oshundun.
After making his presentation, the minister reportedly left the meeting with the approval of Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to attend to other urgent matters. It stated that the Speaker had previously given the Secretary to the Government of the Federation permission to do so.
The minister disclosed that he was the one who convinced the president to give the payment platform UTAS a trial run in accordance with Executive Orders 3 and 4 when the issue arose on January 9, 2020. The minister also described a previous strike threat made by doctors over IPPIS.
ASUU, meanwhile, stated yesterday (October 2nd) that the nation needs genuine national leaders and followers who can provide good governance and work toward the ultimate happiness of Nigerians as a whole.
In a statement, yesterday on the state of the nation and the country’s 62nd national independence celebration, Prof. Ayoola Akinwole, the chairman of the University of Ibadan chapter of the union, claimed that Nigeria has been steered by internal colonizers who support the domination of their people.
“If the essence of government is to make life bearable for the governed, many people who witnessed colonial rule would be regretting Nigeria’s current state,”
“The way and manner in which the ruling class has piloted the affairs of the country since 1960 is nothing but internal colonialism and domination,” he added.
He maintained that there was nothing to celebrate in Nigeria, saying it was a shame that successive governments had been unable to solve the country’s electricity crisis and make education the driving force behind its development.
“A cross-section of Nigerians will, without a doubt, agree that there are no grounds for celebrations and fanfare, given the country’s deplorable state of affairs,” he said.
The ASUU boss, who urged Nigerians to reject subjugation, said the treatment meted out to Nigerians, particularly the intelligentsia, by the government and ruling class, particularly under President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, was terrible, and that it also reflected the oppressive tendencies of some university administrations toward workers’ unions.
Akinwole, on the other hand, praised the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) for demonstrating “in this trying period, defying authorities whose own children have been ferried abroad to study in universities and fees paid with money obtained from our common treasury.”
