Discordant tunes greet FG’s ultimatum to ASUU

So who blinks first? This is the question that Nigerian undergraduates and the general public cannot help but ask. This is as a result of the riot act that the Acting Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, recently read to members of ASUU on Thursday.

While briefing journalists in Abuja, Wike ordered the striking lecturers to go back to the classrooms within one week or lose their jobs.

The minister also threatened that any lecturer in a public university that fails to resume on or before December 4, 2013 automatically ceases to be an employee of the institution and that Vice-Chancellors are allowed to advertise vacancies for their positions in their institutions.

This latest development has further thrown the teeming number of Nigerian undergraduates, who appear to be at the receiving end, into confusion.

It also appears that the latest order by the FG has further pushed ASUU into a tight corner. While the union has shrugged off the order with a statement, the public is set for a showdown on who laughs last.

ASUU has in a swift reaction discountenanced the FG’s threat with a wave of the hand,  in a statement issued on Thursday.

The union described the threat by the FG as one that could not hold water, adding its argument that the the government was not ready to implement resolutions reached with the union had been confirmed.

Going by ASUU’s response and the FG’s position, there may in fact be no end in sight to the lingering strike which began on July1, if the bluff by the two warring parties are anything to go by.

This latest development has led to a Twitter and Facebook debate spearheaded by many of the affected undergraduates and other concerned parties.

Surprisingly, a cursory look at the  Twitter and Facebook timelines of some aggrieved students as well as comments on The PUNCH website, where the discourse is ongoing, shows that Nigerian students, have since lost any form of sympathetic feeling towards ASUU’s cause.

But they are not on the FG’s side either. The general consensus, as far as they are concerned, is that both parties are only fighting for their selfish interests and not out of love for the Nigerian undergraduate.

 “With this renewed demand, it’s obvious that ASUU is not after any student’s interests. Asking to be paid for redundancy and non-performance is illogical; then insisting on sustained strike action for government’s refusal to comply is rebellious.

“That’s the price they have to pay for overstretching the industrial action. More schools should dissociate from this body, a greedy lot with self serving interests, who’s hell-bent on frustrating Nigerian students and their academic calendar,” stated a certain Micheal Okoye on Facebook.

Other respondents also feel the ongoing strike is one too many and has since lost its focus. Beside the tragic death of Prof. Festus Iyayi, which further stalled the chances of a ending the strike, the fact that some universities have since pulled out of the strike questions the commitment of some ASUU members.

 Waving Flag said, “Whether ASUU wins or not; they have just successfully exposed the fact that Nigeria’s future is bleak.”

Olayinka added that, “Whatever sympathy ASUU has left from Nigerians just vanished after that last Friday meeting!They have no idea.”

A comment by Aku Ekpuchu simply queried the FG’s directive. It read, “Nigerian universities have been short of professors and FG is threatening that lecturers will lose their jobs? This is foolishness at its peak!”

Not a few also feel it is high time they took their future into their own hands.

Okey Tagbo wrote, “Politicising education is very bad! ASUU is biting more than it can chew. There is politics behind the strike.

“Well, if the minister has the strong ribs to stand his decision, so be it. Just open the door for employment of new lecturers.

“There are many Masters and PhD holders in the country that are jobless. This may be opportunity for them to actualise their dreams. Advertise for recruitment of new lecturers and you will see the problem solved, at least for now.”

Copyright PUNCH.