- Minister: Lecturers Should Resign To Face Farming…We Need More Farmers
- ASUU: Nwajiuba is Displaying Cluelessness, Naivety.. Should Quit As Minister
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday berated the Minister of State for Education, Hon Emeka Nwajiuba, for saying that lecturers should consider farming as an alternative profession instead of insisting on industrial action.
ASUU said the minister’s unguarded statement reflects the manner some arrogant government officials perceive the academic profession, adding that no Nigerian university is in the top one hundred in the world due to poor funding of public tertiary institutions.
The Minister who was a guest on a TV program on ARISE NEWS Channel on Monday, while speaking on the protracted strike by the ASUU, said that the union did not embark on the said strike on the basis of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nwajiuba stated that the university lecturers should consider farming, as more farmers are needed in the nation.
“Government is actually not holding anyone to ransom. It says this is how I want to pay and it has to be through IPPIS. You can leave the employment. You can opt out of it and say ‘I no longer want to teach’. You can find other professions. What we need now are probably more farmers,” Nwajiuba said.
He said the federal government has shown commitment to their demands adding that the lecturers cannot dictate how they should be paid to their employers.
The ASUU Chairman of University of Ibadan, Professor Ayo Akinwole, who responded to the comment said the Minister was naive on educational issues.
Akinwole retorted that Nwajiuba should also resign his appointment and take to farming as a worthy national service, adding that the scarcity of farmers is also a reflection of the failure of government officials like him to make farming secured for legitimate farmers.
He noted that ASUU decided not to pursue only the welfare of her members while watching the university infrastructure collapse under severe underfunding but resolved to continue to fight parasites like Nwajiuba who preside over a Ministry where no Nigerian University is in the top one hundred in the world.
Akinwole stated that if President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was not paying lip service to education, he would not have consistently reduced budgetary allocation and funding to the education sector since his administration came into office.
“As Scientists, experts in Agriculture faculties continue to conduct research mainly with external funding or personal monies. But Nigerian government who failed to protect farmers and exposed Nigerians to excrutiating poverty is not making use of research findings.
“If the Minister of State for Education is interested in farming, he should resign his appointment and stop displaying his cluelessness of the problems in the education sector. We are on a just fight to ensure that those in public offices become responsive and responsible to the masses they swore to serve.
“They must fund public education. We have been on the same salary since 2009. That is no longer sustainable. The universities are being run with personal sweats of lecturers while politicians siphon monies for personal aggrandizement.
“We cannot accept IPPIS that is against the laws of the land and which fails to recognise the uniqueness of the academic profession and culture. We have brought an alternative using our members’ money.
“People like this Minister of State mirrors the disdain of ruling class for the workers and people of the country.”
The don also pointed out that lecturers are owed academic allowances from 2013 to date, challenging the Minister of State for Education to declare if he has been owed allowances and how much since he assumed office.
Meanwhile, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, on Tuesday insisted the on-going strike would continue until government provides good lecture halls, equipment for students as well as pay outstanding salaries of lecturers.
The FG had issued a directive that public universities should re-open by October 12. Recall that ASUU has been on industrial action since March this year when its members embarked on strike action.
Ogunyemi said: “The ongoing strike will continue and school will not reopen until the government provides good lecture halls, equipment for the students and also pay salaries of lecturers.
“We also have children who are students in these schools; everything ASUU is doing is about students and Nigeria. If we have a good education, students will be proud of their certificates and our universities will be able to reckon with globally.”
