Monday, September 30, 2013

USA Africa Dialogue Series - CISLAC CONDEMNS YOBE MASSACRE


 

CISLAC CONDEMNS YOBE MASSACRE

Following the Sunday mid-night attach by unknown gunmen at the College of Agriculture, Gujba, Yobe State, which resulted in the death of over fifty (50) students and seven (7) teachers; Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), observes as follows:

1.  In recent times, Yobe State has witnessed series of brutal attacks by unknown gunmen targeting students; women, aged citizens, people with the disability and other innocent Nigerians just as no fewer than twenty two (22) students and a teacher were reportedly killed at Government Secondary School, Mamudo, previously.

2.  Following the attacks launched on students, innocent travellers on Damaturu-Maiduguri Road were also ambushed, attacked and killed; revealing the level of weakness in the state security situation.

3.  Persistent devious attacks on students negatively affects the future of the country and saps Nigeria of priceless human resources.

4.  The insurgents have hidden under the ongoing ethno-religious struggles in the country and particularly the weaknesses of internal security in Nigeria and Yobe and Borno States in particular, to successfully perpetuate baseless attacks on innocent and defenselesscitizens.

5.  The family and relatives of the victims have been thrown into terrible pains, emotional trauma, and sorrowful experience by the armed insurgents.

6.  The nonchalant attitude of the Federal government towards the security situation in the country has sent a wrong signal to ethnic-religious terrorist militias thereby setting a regrettable precedence.

7.  The absence of a National Policy on Counter insurgency and counterterrorism in Nigeria makes it difficult to deal with insurgency.

CISLAC RECOMMENDES AS FOLLOWS:

1.  Immediate step and strategic effort by security agencies to halt the senseless killing of defenseless citizens should be provided by relevant authorities.

2.  Government should immediately step up security situation in Yobe and Borno States and indeed in all the States, especially at various educational institutions, places of worship and markets to prevent further attack on innocent lives.

3.  Government should take asa matter of priority maximum safety of lives and property of the citizens.

4.  Government in collaboration with security agencies should ensure that the perpetrators of such outrageous attacks against innocent students are apprehended and brought to justice, as they are proven enemies to peace, unity and development of the country.

5.  The effective management of the College administrators should be immediately questioned for it has hesitated to act promptly on the early warning alert by the insurgents.

6.  Immediate action should be taken to ensure maximum protection for 'whistle blowers' against insurgents and their hideouts in the state.

7.  CISLAC and Pan-African Strategic and Policy Research Centre(PANAFSTRAC) offer to support government to draft a National policy on counter Insurgency and Counterterrorism in Nigeria

CISLAC therefore expresses itsheartfelt condolence to the families and relatives of the victims.

Signed:

 

Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani)

Executive Director,

CISLAC


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Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) is a non-governmental, non-profit legislative advocacy, lobbying, information sharing and research organization. (CISLAC) works towards bridging the gap between the legislature and the electorate; by enhancing lobbying strategies; engagement of bills before their passage into law; manpower development for lawmakers, legislative aides, politicians and the civil society, as well as civic education on the tenets of democracy and Human Rights.
 

CISLAC has UN ECOSOC consultative status


AUWAL IBRAHIM MUSA (RAFSANJANI)
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)
Address:
No.7 Mahathma Gandhi Street,
Off Shehu Shagari Way,
By Bullet Garden, Area 11 Junction,
Asokoro, Abuja - Nigeria
Website: www.cislacnigeria.net
cislacnationalassembly@yahoo.com, rafsanjanikano@yahoo.com
GSM: +234-8033844646, 08052370333, 07034118266

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NigerianID | UN-STAR ARTICLE: UNTH as a metaphor of a failed state

What can I say  to the author of this article  other  than welcome to Nigeria. Next time if you have the money go to Mephis  or Niger Foundation both at Enugu except that the bill is for those earning as much as Legislators. Will you believe that  2013 students in our Universities  contribute money to buy reagents for their practical, sometimes the lecturers assist where the price  is very high. What kind of biochemists and microbiologists (trained with alternative to practical) will  they be after graduation. It is  a known fact that the private laboratory of science based teachers in Europe and America is 100 times better equipped than the various Science Laboratories in our Universities. You may not have been aware of the reputation of UNTH some years back as a pre obituary centre because there was a time almost every obituary announced  on TV or radio  states   that the deceased died after a brief illness at UNTH. That stereotyped UNTH  for a time as a death centre. The situation got worse with the retirement of many good/experienced doctors/medical personnel, Some also flee to Europe and America, even Saudi Arabia because of the frustration of working without facilities. Presently many Nigerians especially in the East go to India for medical treatment. So the middle class  that can complain for things to get better no longer use our teaching hospitals. 
Nkolika 

From: Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 30, 2013 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NigerianID | UN-STAR ARTICLE: UNTH as a metaphor of a failed state

Moses:

Oh  #$@%&^, FUO is good enough for us.

And there you have it.


Bolaji Aluko
Shaking his head at Moses

On 9/30/13, Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:
> Bolaji,
>
> Nice, heart warming story there about the clinic. But it seems to me that
> FU Otuoke needs some nomenclatural rebranding. I mean, how can one say the
> name FU Otuoke without feeling a bit dirty or feeling like apologizing to
> the good people of Otuoke or to those within hearing radius? Can one even
> say it with children around? Which brings me to a true story I heard from
> one of my professors at Bayero University Kano when I was an undergraduate
> there. The story is told that when the university was first established
> (made independent of ABU, of which it had been a campus), the pioneer
> officials deliberated on what to call the new institution--it had been
> called Abdullahi Bayero College. As with every federally funded institution
> in Nigeria it had to have the word "federal" in its name, so the task was
> to come up with the other words to constitute the name. Someone suggested
> that it simply be called *F*ederal *U*niversity *C*ollege *K*ano, to which
> everyone agreed. A few short minutes later when the acronym was read out,
> it dawned on everyone that the name did not fit, especially in a
> conservative Islamic culture like Kano. How do you tell someone that you're
> a student at F.U.C.K? Needless to say, the name was rejected, replaced by
> the institution's current name of Bayero University, Kano, or BUK as it is
> popularly known.
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> Ezeana Achusim:
>>
>> The UNTH report is depressing.
>>
>> The ease with which mosquitoes, typhoid and other diseases can ravage in
>> NIgeria  is why we have FOUR doctors (two male, two female, 1 each from
>> Anambra (the Medical Director), Bayelsa, Delta and Ekiti States) at FU
>> Otuoke's small medical facilty.  We have two clean wards (one for male,
>> one for female), with four beds each, a small operating theater and a
>> full
>> pharmacy unit - and two ambulances, with one big one donated by a
>> Northern
>> Alhaji. The facilty will soon qualify as an NHIS facility, and will
>> therefore get capitation money from NHIS direct.
>>
>> In fact, FUO's clinic is my greatest pride as VC, as I always take
>> visitors there to see the place, describing it as our small "teaching"
>> hospital.  When National Assembly legislators saw the clinic, they said,
>> "Hun, students won't leave here o when they get sick..."
>>
>> And all our students and staff are MEDICALLY insured.
>>
>> Now, In my two years plus at Otuoke, I have not had malaria ONCE, or even
>> been sick once, thank God.  Rather, the insects had malaria biting me.
>>
>> And there you have it.
>>
>>
>> Bolaji Aluko
>> *
>> *
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 12:48 PM, Ezeana Achusim
>> <pachusim@yahoo.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Bolaji:
>>>
>>> Those mosquitoes in Nigeria are beyond control. They can frustrate any
>>> teaching hospital anywhere. Their effects are difficult to diagnose. If
>>> at
>>> all. Here is a man who left Abuja hearty and healthy. And within an hour
>>> of
>>> flight, his health was a big concern. Why? Mosquitoes. Trust me.
>>> Mosquitoes
>>> are to blame.
>>>
>>> My friend Dr. Olowopopo is not here to confirm my story. But every time
>>> I
>>> get a fever after visiting Nigeria with all due precautions, I would run
>>> to
>>> his hospital in Chicago and yell mosquitoes. They would then keep me for
>>> four days until the suckers' effects are obliterated.
>>>
>>> A man was healthy and hearty one day. And after an hour's flight from
>>> Abuja to Enugu, his health was a concern. Serious concern. We should
>>> blame
>>> the British. They forgot to take the mosquitoes with them. And don't
>>> blame
>>> UNTH.
>>>
>>> And I am
>>>
>>> Ezeana Igirigi Achusim
>>> Odi-Isaa
>>> Nwa Dim Orioha
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>
>>> On Sep 30, 2013, at 10:23 AM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My People:
>>>
>>>
>>> QUOTE
>>>
>>> The doctors and nurses that attended to me continued to wonder why my
>>> blood pressure refused to come down. How could the blood pressure of a
>>> social crusader, as me, come down after witnessing how the teaching
>>> hospital of my alma mater, the first indigenous university of my 53
>>> year-old nation, has become a huge joke and had truly transformed into
>>> the
>>> 'university of Nigeria death hospital'. I had kicked to be discharged
>>> because I knew that if I had stayed longer, I would have developed a
>>> permanent, and perhaps, incurable mental dent. Those 12 days were a
>>> nightmare and without the care of those nurses and my friends, I would
>>> have
>>> gone raving mad.
>>>
>>> UNQUOTE
>>>
>>> Lord have mercy.....gallows humor!
>>>
>>> Maybe this article's attention to UNTH will lead to an improvement, and
>>> introspection in other UTHs....and kick-in of the NEEDS assessment
>>> money.
>>>
>>> And there you have it.
>>>
>>>
>>> Bolaji Aluko
>>> Shaking his head
>>>
>>>
>>> http://sunnewsonline.com/new/columns/unth-as-a-metaphor-of-a-failed-state/
>>>
>>> UNTH as a metaphor of a failed stateOur
>>> Reporter<http://sunnewsonline.com/new/author/webmaster/>
>>>  September 30, 2013 3 Comments
>>> »<http://sunnewsonline.com/new/columns/unth-as-a-metaphor-of-a-failed-state/#comments>
>>>
>>> Uche Exechukwu
>>>
>>> I apologise to my teeming readers for this three-week absence. The
>>> reason is encapsulated in my choice of this title which has also become
>>> my
>>> reflection on the 53rd anniversary of Nigeria's independence which we
>>> celebrate tomorrow. It also happens that tomorrow's 'celebration' will
>>> be
>>> the last we shall encounter before the bigger one of next January which
>>> will mark a century of the attainment of Nigeria as a single 'geographic
>>> expression', as one of our founding fathers once described it.
>>>
>>> On Thursday, 5th of this month, I was undertaking a brief routine trip
>>> to
>>> my home state, Anambra State, but could not complete the journey. On
>>> departure, I was feeling hale and hearty, but on alighting at the Enugu
>>> airport on the first leg of my journey, I suddenly took ill. It was with
>>> a
>>> superhuman effort that I could walk down from the aircraft to the
>>> terminal
>>> building to meet my waiting friend, Chief Phil Ezeogu, with whom I was
>>> going to drive to Anambra State. I was panting for breath, became
>>> feverish,
>>> physically drained and overwhelmed. I felt like someone suddenly struck
>>> by
>>> a juju.
>>>
>>> One thing followed the other and a doctor who was contacted promptly
>>> came
>>> to my aid after I had aborted my trip to Awka but had checked into a
>>> hotel
>>> instead, hoping to stabilize and return to Abuja the following day. When
>>> the doctor arrived, he pronounced that my condition was not good at all
>>> and
>>> that I would need to be hospitalized. With his initial observations, he
>>> feared that my heart was failing. I told him that I would prefer to
>>> return
>>> to Abuja where I would have the members of my family to care for me at
>>> the
>>> hospital and where I had doctors who were conversant with my health
>>> history. He doubted if in my condition, I could fly.
>>>
>>> I could also not go by road because I was gasping for air and could not
>>> stay in an air-conditioned car. It was by miracle that I had survived
>>> the
>>> night till the following Friday morning. My friend Phil and I had no
>>> option
>>> than to agree with the doctor to rush, as early as 5.30am, to the
>>> University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) where he worked. We drove
>>> behind the doctor who hardly took his bath, to the teaching hospital
>>> which
>>> is situated over 25 kilometres out of Enugu. The doctor who also worked
>>> there had insisted that we should get there early enough so as to meet
>>> up
>>> with the staff that had not gone away from their night shift.
>>>
>>> We were there at 6 am and Dr. Umeh enjoined on his colleagues at the
>>> Emergency post to take up my case without undue protocol. They did and
>>> besieged me like a swarm of friendly bees, checking my temperature,
>>> pulse
>>> rate, blood pressure, glucose level and every other thing. They ruled my
>>> case a bad one and pronounced that "we shall admit you here". As I lay
>>> there helplessly, I quickly took in the entire environment that was
>>> reeking
>>> with urine and my mind conjured the refugee hospitals that I saw so
>>> often
>>> on the television or a hospital in the war-torn Biafra. I looked around
>>> and
>>> saw patients lying and groaning forlornly in beds scattered in that open
>>> emergency ward. The place was obviously unfit for a Nigerian, I thought,
>>> yet, there they were, hoping, as the doctors and nurses worked around
>>> the
>>> clock, for the best. I silently beckoned to Phil to inform him that
>>> instead
>>> of being admitted there, I should be allowed to die elsewhere.
>>>
>>> Through the magical combination of my friend's wizardry, wits and with
>>> the help and contacts of the Good Samaritan doctor who had brought me in
>>> the first instance, I acquired an 'accommodation' at the five-star-like
>>> part of the hospital, which is actually a place named the 'Private
>>> Suites',
>>> a veritable oasis in the squalid desert environment of the UNTH, the
>>> biggest medical facility in Eastern Nigeria. I had arrived the UNTH at
>>> 6am
>>> on that Friday, but it was not until 5pm that I was finally wheeled into
>>> one of those private suites, long after my worried wife had arrived,
>>> having
>>> driven all the way from Abuja, when she learnt I would no longer return.
>>>
>>> In between, I had been dumped at the Emergency hall, watching two shifts
>>> come and go, and preyed upon by teachers and their medical students who
>>> feasted on me and my misfortunes, with none caring for the extreme pain
>>> and
>>> discomfort that I was physically and psychologically subjected to. One
>>> unit
>>> even callously conducted their practical examination with my condition,
>>> forcing out barrages of answers from me. It was a veritable nightmare.
>>>
>>> But I helplessly accepted my dire situation. Even in that my pitiable
>>> physical and psychological state, my wounded mind roved to my secondary
>>> school days when one tailor whose apprentice had messed up my pair of
>>> shorts had disagreed with me when I queried why he had given my material
>>> to
>>> his apprentice to sew. He had reasoned with me thus: "Should a barber
>>> learn
>>> how to barb with the head of a goat?" Yes, I agreed that medical
>>> students
>>> should learn and conduct their tests with and on people, like me, who
>>> had
>>> the misfortune of being brought, in spite of themselves, into their
>>> clutches, as I had been that morning. But I also imagined that part of
>>> their training should have included ensuring that a patient received a
>>> minimal level comfort before being turned into a specimen. On that day,
>>> I
>>> started understanding what it really meant to be a real-life guinea pig
>>> of
>>> a failed nation and its institutions.
>>>
>>> When as a student of the UNN in the late 70s, I had gone to the original
>>> UNTH to visit a friend who had sustained injuries from a car crash. I
>>> met
>>> him hospitalized in a clean open ward, attended to by happy, chatty and
>>> polite nurses and doctors, in professional gait and mien; I silently
>>> wished
>>> that I should also become a patient there to enjoy such lavish care. A
>>> patient was treated like a king by a happy and contented crop of
>>> professionals. His recovery was quick and assured. But when fate and ill
>>> luck forced me into the bowels of the same UNTH over 30 years later, and
>>> into a VIP suite, expecting 30 years of improvement, there was no
>>> further
>>> proof that Nigeria, as a nation, had been hurtling very rapidly in the
>>> reverse, during these 53 years of its existence as a nation. And lest
>>> you
>>> forget, UNTH is of those places which the Nigerian state regards as 'a
>>> centre of excellence' in health delivery.
>>>
>>> I was hospitalized at the UNTH for 12 clear days and emerged mentally
>>> damaged and psychologically traumatized by my experiences. I must remind
>>> the readers that I obtained the best in personal care and attention that
>>> the equally helpless hands around me could afford under the woeful
>>> circumstances and conditions that they operate. The nurses at my special
>>> ward were perhaps the most professional and polite Nigerians I have
>>> encountered in my life. While I cannot say the same about the dedication
>>> of
>>> some of the puffed-up doctors, I can vouch for the diligence and
>>> application of many younger doctors who attended to me.
>>>
>>> I must however put on record that for the 12 days of my hospitalization,
>>> the consultant who heads the unit that admitted me never turned up for
>>> one
>>> second. Even on several occasions when my case took a turn for the
>>> worse,
>>> and my friend, Phil sent her text messages, she neither replied to any
>>> of
>>> those messages, nor picked the calls, not to talk of ever appearing in
>>> person. Instead, it was the young house officers and young registrars
>>> who
>>> were at my beck and call.
>>>
>>> Needless to say that without the 24-hour care and attention of Phil and
>>> members of his family who shuttled endlessly between Enugu and the
>>> hospital
>>> to ensure that I lacked nothing, I would have died. I need to stress
>>> too,
>>> that at the UNTH, our centre of excellence, if you have nobody with and
>>> around you, 24/7, you will die! And I am not joking. I do not wish my
>>> worst
>>> enemy to be admitted there.
>>>
>>> The doctors and nurses that attended to me continued to wonder why my
>>> blood pressure refused to come down. How could the blood pressure of a
>>> social crusader, as me, come down after witnessing how the teaching
>>> hospital of my alma mater, the first indigenous university of my 53
>>> year-old nation, has become a huge joke and had truly transformed into
>>> the
>>> 'university of Nigeria death hospital'. I had kicked to be discharged
>>> because I knew that if I had stayed longer, I would have developed a
>>> permanent, and perhaps, incurable mental dent. Those 12 days were a
>>> nightmare and without the care of those nurses and my friends, I would
>>> have
>>> gone raving mad.
>>>
>>> Here is a teaching hospital from which we turn out doctors that would
>>> cater to patients, yet it lacks the most basic facilities that are found
>>> even at the small private clinics elsewhere. I was admitted at UNTH as a
>>> cardiac patient, yet there is no ECG machine, cardiac echo machine or
>>> the
>>> other basic investigation facilities. Unbelievable? But it is true. Even
>>> when I could not walk, was ferried by my friend to Enugu, to undergo an
>>> ECG
>>> and heart echo at a facility privately owned by one of the cardiology
>>> consultants at the UNTH. Whether the allegation that the consultants at
>>> the
>>> hospital would not allow the equipment at UNTH to work so that patients
>>> would patronize their private clinics, is true or false, is neither here
>>> nor there. The fact remains that the most basic facilities that one
>>> finds
>>> at the ordinary hospitals are non-existent at the UNTH (and perhaps at
>>> the
>>> other teaching hospitals in the country).
>>>
>>> You would wonder: as modern medicine is mostly technologically based,
>>> and
>>> there are hardly any modern facilities at this federal government owned
>>> 'centre of excellence', why would anyone want to go to any teaching
>>> hospital, except to go there to die, or if, as was my case, going there
>>> was
>>> the final option. What is the notion of 'excellence' by our leaders? For
>>> how long can the patient continue to rely on the 'magical' knowledge of
>>> the
>>> Nigerian doctor at a public hospital, when is trusted to diagnose and
>>> treat
>>> ailments without modern facilities to guide him in investigating them? I
>>> saw the doctors at the UNTH as modern-day dibias, who work through
>>> divination, trusting their limited human faculties. They are like
>>> Nigerian
>>> policemen who crack crimes without the benefit of modern forensics.
>>>
>>> On the very day that I was admitted at UNTH, my blood specimen was taken
>>> for the several tests prescribed by the doctors. The results of those
>>> tests
>>> came out the following Thursday – six clear days after – following the
>>> frenzied interventions and complaints to higher authorities by my
>>> friend.
>>> Yet, for those six days, the doctors had continued 'treating' me,
>>> pumping
>>> me with injections and oral drugs, almost blindly, I daresay. When the
>>> results of the tests came out, the doctors were compelled to start
>>> adding
>>> and subtracting from their copious drug list. Needles to say that when I
>>> returned to Abuja and having now gone to a private and modern hospital,
>>> where the repeat of those and more tests were ordered, it is looking
>>> obvious that my long sojourn at the UNTH had amounted to a mere first
>>> aid,
>>> while most of the tests had proved defective. Hence, your guess as
>>> whether
>>> I would keep the appointment given to me to report at UNTH  on October
>>> 2nd,
>>> is as good as mine.
>>>
>>> Nothing that I have said here or will still write later about the
>>> harrowing situation I encountered at UNTH Enugu should be taken as an
>>> aspersion on the diligence and dedication of the men and women who toil
>>> day
>>> and night, trying to enact modern day miracles, with bare hands. You
>>> encounter hundreds of frustrated men and women bumping into each other
>>> on
>>> the poorly –lit corridors, while trying to eke miracles out of nothing.
>>> This is in face of the worsening incidence of the sick and ailing
>>> Nigerians
>>> whose numbers are growing exponentially. Many of them whisper and wonder
>>> why you ever brought yourself there and when you describe the
>>> circumstances
>>> of your coming there, they shake their heads in pity.
>>>
>>> My experience at the UNTH clearly brought to me what the university
>>> teachers are talking about and I became even more mentally wounded as I
>>> contemplated the fate of my two children who are marooned at home by the
>>> ASUU strikes. Yet, I said to myself that if the situation at the UNTH
>>> was
>>> symptomatic of what the university teachers are talking about, then the
>>> teachers are doubly justified in spite of the pains of us parents and
>>> students.
>>>
>>> From these experiences at the UNTH – a situation which I am sure is
>>> replicated at the other tertiary medical institutions, just like at the
>>> government universities – it is obvious that between now and January
>>> when
>>> Nigeria would come a full circle in our hundred years as a country,
>>> Nigerians must have some clear and salient questions to pose to
>>> ourselves
>>> and find answers to in order to save our individual and collective
>>> lives.
>>> No nation can afford to live much longer like this. There is no doubt
>>> that
>>> Nigeria has fallen into two clear nations – one of a few people
>>> swimming
>>> in corrupt and decadent affluence, affording all the good things of life
>>> and mocking the teeming population of the members of the other Nigeria
>>> who
>>> are being despoiled, deprived and bruised daily.
>>>
>>> At 53, Nigerians must make a decision as to how much longer this unjust
>>> situation would be allowed to endure. To think that it could continue
>>> much
>>> longer like this would be sheer illusion.
>>>
>>> ___________________________________________________
>>>
>>>  __._,_.___
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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Punch Editorial (July 18, 2013): No to ASUU’s frequent strikes

This is what happens when you overplay your hand, take everyone for granted, and fail to look at your own flaws. Now, even the media, which used to be ASUU's most loyal constituency, is beginning to question the union's antics.
 
The government will cave eventually, but I am convinced that ASUU will never be the same again, neither will its hackneyed internal narratives. Public attitude has definitely shifted decisively away from ASUU's self-serving propaganda. As the editorial indicates, many of the internal, previously concealed facts about the egregious shortcomings of ASUU members have finally seeped out and now being openly discussed in the public domain, on the street. Unlike in previous strikes, people are not just asking questions of the government but also of ASUU and its members; they're asking what ASUU is proposing to do or give in return for these perennial demands. These public narratives have now punctured the incestuous propaganda of ASUU, a deceptive discourse of altruism that ASUU used in the past to blackmail, confuse, and bludgeon potential critics.
 
I just have a feeling that whatever the outcome of this strike, the pendulum has swung in terms of the public wising up to the extremism and tyranny of ASUU. Folks now see ASUU rightly as part of the problem of higher education in Nigeria, since its members routinely do wrong by our students and are protected by an ASUU unwilling to broach or entertain any measures that will put the interests of students at the center of conversations about higher education. This shift may compel the union to finally do some soul searching and subject its members to some accountability metrics in return for whatever concession the government makes to them.  We'll see.


On Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 7:20 PM, Ikhide <xokigbo@yahoo.com> wrote:
"ACADEMIC activities in public universities in the country have frozen following a strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities three weeks ago. At issue are unpaid "earned allowances" and inadequate funding of universities. The Federal Government had entered into an agreement with the union in 2009 to fulfil these obligations, resulting in ASUU suspending its three months' strike of that year. According to the lecturers, the government has observed the deal in the breach, forcing it to return to the trenches once again. But the latest, we dare say, is one strike too many. While the rot in the system is quite obvious and unacceptable, the academics, too, are as culpable as the government."
 
"A total of 78 universities, comprising 40 federally owned and 38 belonging to the states, have been shut down as a result of the strike. Only the country's 50 privately-owned universities are in session. Frequent resort to strikes by ASUU to drive home its point is a strategy that no longer commands the respect of the public and even some academics."
 
"[W]e see wisdom in Ben Nwabueze and Akinjide Osuntokun's denunciations of the ongoing strike. The two are distinguished professors who are familiar with our academic environment. "I am totally against the strike as it has destroyed the university system in Nigeria," says Osuntokun. So deep-rooted is the rot in the system that the University of Ibadan, which used to be among the very best in the Commonwealth, in the First Republic, is not even among the best 3,000 in the last global universities ranking by Webometrics, an online agency."
 
"But the Nasir Fagge-led ASUU's search for change should begin from within, with self-examination. ASUU should feel concerned about sexual harassment of female students, selling of marks and intellectually barren handouts and plagiarism rampant in universities, which have badly corroded the system. These vices need to be stamped out. Funding alone is not the solution."
 
- The Punch
 
*applause* Brilliant editorial. A must read. If only ASUU would listen. There is a near mutiny out there against ASUU's shenanigans.
 
 
*cycles away slowly*
 
- Ikhide
 
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
Join me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide


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---Mohandas Gandhi

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Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Obama Wandirasa? Is Obama truly pro-black?

this is a case of the foxes minding the hen house. it's called the security council, or so-called security council. so if russia or china or the u.s. decide the war will go on, it goes on. "removal of threats to the peace"! how can anyone possibly cite this with a straight face these days. it is the rule of the powerful few states, and the rest get to chime in, not to rule.
syria can go on killing as long as russia authorizes it. the rest is nonsense
ken

On 9/30/13 7:00 PM, Colen wrote:
With respect to Syria, do you expect him(or USA) to invade Syria again? What's the purpose of United Nations(UN) ?(See below for a quick reminder) 

"To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace;"


--   kenneth w. harrow   faculty excellence advocate  professor of english  michigan state university  department of english  619 red cedar road  room C-614 wells hall  east lansing, mi 48824  ph. 517 803 8839  harrow@msu.edu

Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ogunlewe to ASUU: Call off the strike, we’re ready to pay you the allowances

"Senator" about Sinator Ogunlewe is speaking! Ogunlewe is now a "statesman" worth quoting, right? The former "Minister" of Works is now talking sense, right? This is how I will call him a crook and a criminal who looted what was meant for real roads and someone will say, prove it, do the analysis, prattle, prattle, prattle! Another one will say, he is not a crook all the time, stop generalizing! He is a crook, some of the time! 

And there you have it, between a crook and and an army of learned thugs, we are stuck! Nigeria! There is no hope. Nigeria,  Oro pe si je! *cycles away slowly*

- Ikhide

On Sep 30, 2013, at 8:25 PM, Mobolaji Aluko <alukome@gmail.com> wrote:



This impasse has to be broken....


QUOTE

So, the Federal Government has given FUNAAB now about N1billion to pay all the allowances for all the staff. We are appealing to all the staff to sit down with the management of the university and determine how far this amount of money can go in payment of the outstanding arrears. Let us know the shortfall. In some universities, there will be no shortfall......Also, the federal government has given us money for infrastructural development. In FUNAAB, we got N800m and they indicated the project that we should spend the money on. And they gave money to state universities too. Every state university was given money for infrastructural development. Even if the Federal Government gives the universities the N400 billion being demanded by ASUU, the capacity to spend this money is not there.

UNQUOTE


http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/ogunlewe-to-asuu/

Ogunlewe to ASUU:

 September 3, 2013 1 Comment »
Call off the strike, we're ready to pay you the allowances

By SAM OTTI

The Federal Government recently approved N30 billion to assist various Governing Councils of Federal Universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion, said to be owed all categories of staff in the university system.

This is in addition to the N100 billion voted for infrastructural development in the 62 Federal universities.

But the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rejected the offer, saying 'it would not grab the crumb.' In this interview with Education Review, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, Nigeria's former Minister of Works, under President Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration and Pro-Chancellor, and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), advises the aggrieved lecturers to accept the offer and return to their Councils for the implementation. In his view, the Federal Government has demonstrated sufficient commitment to ending the 10-week strike that has turned public universities into ghost communities. Excerpts:

As a father and also the Chairman, Governing Council, FUNAAB, how do you feel seeing so many students out of school because of the ongoing ASUU strike?

Let us feel for these children because our own children are abroad schooling. Most of these people you are talking about, their children are not in our universities. The children of the masses are suffering.

How much do they pay as school fees? It is about $100, the highest you can pay in a federal university is N14,000 per session. So, as far as I am concerned, we must revisit this matter and go and fight at the level of each university. Fighting at Abuja, to me, is futile. They cannot get anything there. Assuming the government releases all the money they are demanding, where do they go to? Are they going to collect the money in Abuja? Where will they go? I am appealing, as the Pro Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) fought a good fight. Let them go back and iron out the nitty-gritty of the disbursement of the amount of money released. Based on the following criteria, the 92 billion was arrived at as the 15 per cent of the total emolument of federal universities, which is an estimate but allowances are not the same for all categories of staff.

Now that the Federal Government has approved N30 billion out of the N92 billion demanded by ASUU, can the councils source out the outstanding allowances? Do the councils have the financial backbone to pay these allowances?

It is the university that will determine the allowances accruing to each staff, not the federal government. So, the Federal Government has given FUNAAB now about N1billion to pay all the allowances for all the staff. We are appealing to all the staff to sit down with the management of the university and determine how far this amount of money can go in payment of the outstanding arrears. Let us know the shortfall. In some universities, there will be no shortfall.

This money will be more than what everybody is thinking about because there is nobody that can specifically say it is this exact amount. It is not a percentage of the salary. It depends on the type of job one is doing in the university. And allowances are not the same. So you cannot equate it by saying 15 per cent of total emolument. Let them have confidence in the government and go back, sit down and let each university calculate the allowances that are accruing to the staff in the university.

Also, the federal government has given us money for infrastructural development. In FUNAAB, we got N800m and they indicated the project that we should spend the money on. And they gave money to state universities too. Every state university was given money for infrastructural development. Even if the Federal Government gives the universities the N400 billion being demanded by ASUU, the capacity to spend this money is not there.

There is a Procurement Act, there is a process, a procedure you have to adopt to be able to spend the money. It is not that the government gives out the money and universities spend it arbitrarily. There are procedures. Let us see how far the money they have approved will go before continuing with the battle. That's my own opinion.

Part of the demands made by ASUU was addressing the infrastructure deficit in universities. Would this money allotted to individual universities address this major challenge?

It will not. There is no way, in demand and supply, that any amount will be enough in any nation all over the world. But they have given N100 billion to all public universities. I will show you a letter now. They gave Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) the sum of N800m and they specified the area the money would be spent on. In the next six months, I cannot finish spending this money. I cannot just give the money to the contractor.

It has to follow due process. That will take us to the end of the year, then, they will give us another N100 0r N200 billion next year. We begin the process again. The procurement act does not allow, even if they give N1 trillion to each university today, the process of spending the money is cumbersome. We will not be able to start spending the money even in another six months. So, it is not that there is money, start tomorrow to build new hostels, renovate laboratories. No, you have to follow due process.

ASUU members said they will not call off the strike unless the FG implements the 2009 Agreement. Do you think the government would accede to this request?

The government is implementing it. Even if the government gives the universities all the money today, universities will not be able to start the implementation till another three months. If they release all the N400 billion demanded for infrastructure today, we cannot spend a kobo from there in another three months. There is a process. You must design. You must quantify.

You must advertise. You must do environmental impact analysis. Contractors must bid and so on. The process is not done in one day. So, ASUU should not pretend before the public that if the government releases the N400 billion, all the universities will become okay. It doesn't work that way. Yes, they have done well by attracting the attention of the public to this issue. Government has responded. Let us see how far we can go in another six months.

If there is need, they can continue the fighting. It is the children that we are fighting for that are at the losing end, not the lecturers, not the workers. University exists for the students.

The students are the ones suffering most. No matter how long ASUU members stay at home, they still get their salaries. But, these children can lose a whole year of their academic life because of the strike. ASUU members should look at themselves as parents too and let us continue the struggle while we implement together the amount of money given to us. We can tell them later that the money is not enough because we have implemented it.

It seems ASUU members are not comfortable returning to the Governing Council of their respective universities for negotiation. What could be the possible reason why they wouldn't want to relate with the council?

It is because the Governing Council is their employer. To me, they have no business with the Federal Government. When they are about getting promotion, will they go to the Federal Government?  If they want to become professors, is it the federal government that will make them professors.

Who is their employer? Who gave them letters of employment?  During the initial negotiation between the ASUU and the federal government team, the government did not carry along members of the Governing Council. Instead, they constituted a federal government committee. They should have contacted the council. We are the people that know what each of the universities needs.

There is a law that established each university. There is no university that hasn't gotten any law. The law specifies how to run the university. Three years ago, they passed Autonomy Act. It stated that anything that does not conform to the Act that established the university should be ignored.

That each university is autonomous. It is this same ASUU that said if you want a Vice Chancellor, it should be the Governing Council, not the Federal Government. That is what is operating now. There is no external interference now. This same Council that they are talking about appoints Vice Chancellors, not the federal government. So, what are we talking about?

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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Ogunlewe to ASUU: Call off the strike, we’re ready to pay you the allowances



This impasse has to be broken....


QUOTE

So, the Federal Government has given FUNAAB now about N1billion to pay all the allowances for all the staff. We are appealing to all the staff to sit down with the management of the university and determine how far this amount of money can go in payment of the outstanding arrears. Let us know the shortfall. In some universities, there will be no shortfall......Also, the federal government has given us money for infrastructural development. In FUNAAB, we got N800m and they indicated the project that we should spend the money on. And they gave money to state universities too. Every state university was given money for infrastructural development. Even if the Federal Government gives the universities the N400 billion being demanded by ASUU, the capacity to spend this money is not there.

UNQUOTE


http://sunnewsonline.com/new/national/ogunlewe-to-asuu/

Ogunlewe to ASUU:

 September 3, 2013 1 Comment »
Call off the strike, we're ready to pay you the allowances

By SAM OTTI

The Federal Government recently approved N30 billion to assist various Governing Councils of Federal Universities to defray the arrears of N92 billion, said to be owed all categories of staff in the university system.

This is in addition to the N100 billion voted for infrastructural development in the 62 Federal universities.

But the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rejected the offer, saying 'it would not grab the crumb.' In this interview with Education Review, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, Nigeria's former Minister of Works, under President Olusegun Obasanjo civilian administration and Pro-Chancellor, and Chairman, Governing Council, Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), advises the aggrieved lecturers to accept the offer and return to their Councils for the implementation. In his view, the Federal Government has demonstrated sufficient commitment to ending the 10-week strike that has turned public universities into ghost communities. Excerpts:

As a father and also the Chairman, Governing Council, FUNAAB, how do you feel seeing so many students out of school because of the ongoing ASUU strike?

Let us feel for these children because our own children are abroad schooling. Most of these people you are talking about, their children are not in our universities. The children of the masses are suffering.

How much do they pay as school fees? It is about $100, the highest you can pay in a federal university is N14,000 per session. So, as far as I am concerned, we must revisit this matter and go and fight at the level of each university. Fighting at Abuja, to me, is futile. They cannot get anything there. Assuming the government releases all the money they are demanding, where do they go to? Are they going to collect the money in Abuja? Where will they go? I am appealing, as the Pro Chancellor of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) fought a good fight. Let them go back and iron out the nitty-gritty of the disbursement of the amount of money released. Based on the following criteria, the 92 billion was arrived at as the 15 per cent of the total emolument of federal universities, which is an estimate but allowances are not the same for all categories of staff.

Now that the Federal Government has approved N30 billion out of the N92 billion demanded by ASUU, can the councils source out the outstanding allowances? Do the councils have the financial backbone to pay these allowances?

It is the university that will determine the allowances accruing to each staff, not the federal government. So, the Federal Government has given FUNAAB now about N1billion to pay all the allowances for all the staff. We are appealing to all the staff to sit down with the management of the university and determine how far this amount of money can go in payment of the outstanding arrears. Let us know the shortfall. In some universities, there will be no shortfall.

This money will be more than what everybody is thinking about because there is nobody that can specifically say it is this exact amount. It is not a percentage of the salary. It depends on the type of job one is doing in the university. And allowances are not the same. So you cannot equate it by saying 15 per cent of total emolument. Let them have confidence in the government and go back, sit down and let each university calculate the allowances that are accruing to the staff in the university.

Also, the federal government has given us money for infrastructural development. In FUNAAB, we got N800m and they indicated the project that we should spend the money on. And they gave money to state universities too. Every state university was given money for infrastructural development. Even if the Federal Government gives the universities the N400 billion being demanded by ASUU, the capacity to spend this money is not there.

There is a Procurement Act, there is a process, a procedure you have to adopt to be able to spend the money. It is not that the government gives out the money and universities spend it arbitrarily. There are procedures. Let us see how far the money they have approved will go before continuing with the battle. That's my own opinion.

Part of the demands made by ASUU was addressing the infrastructure deficit in universities. Would this money allotted to individual universities address this major challenge?

It will not. There is no way, in demand and supply, that any amount will be enough in any nation all over the world. But they have given N100 billion to all public universities. I will show you a letter now. They gave Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) the sum of N800m and they specified the area the money would be spent on. In the next six months, I cannot finish spending this money. I cannot just give the money to the contractor.

It has to follow due process. That will take us to the end of the year, then, they will give us another N100 0r N200 billion next year. We begin the process again. The procurement act does not allow, even if they give N1 trillion to each university today, the process of spending the money is cumbersome. We will not be able to start spending the money even in another six months. So, it is not that there is money, start tomorrow to build new hostels, renovate laboratories. No, you have to follow due process.

ASUU members said they will not call off the strike unless the FG implements the 2009 Agreement. Do you think the government would accede to this request?

The government is implementing it. Even if the government gives the universities all the money today, universities will not be able to start the implementation till another three months. If they release all the N400 billion demanded for infrastructure today, we cannot spend a kobo from there in another three months. There is a process. You must design. You must quantify.

You must advertise. You must do environmental impact analysis. Contractors must bid and so on. The process is not done in one day. So, ASUU should not pretend before the public that if the government releases the N400 billion, all the universities will become okay. It doesn't work that way. Yes, they have done well by attracting the attention of the public to this issue. Government has responded. Let us see how far we can go in another six months.

If there is need, they can continue the fighting. It is the children that we are fighting for that are at the losing end, not the lecturers, not the workers. University exists for the students.

The students are the ones suffering most. No matter how long ASUU members stay at home, they still get their salaries. But, these children can lose a whole year of their academic life because of the strike. ASUU members should look at themselves as parents too and let us continue the struggle while we implement together the amount of money given to us. We can tell them later that the money is not enough because we have implemented it.

It seems ASUU members are not comfortable returning to the Governing Council of their respective universities for negotiation. What could be the possible reason why they wouldn't want to relate with the council?

It is because the Governing Council is their employer. To me, they have no business with the Federal Government. When they are about getting promotion, will they go to the Federal Government?  If they want to become professors, is it the federal government that will make them professors.

Who is their employer? Who gave them letters of employment?  During the initial negotiation between the ASUU and the federal government team, the government did not carry along members of the Governing Council. Instead, they constituted a federal government committee. They should have contacted the council. We are the people that know what each of the universities needs.

There is a law that established each university. There is no university that hasn't gotten any law. The law specifies how to run the university. Three years ago, they passed Autonomy Act. It stated that anything that does not conform to the Act that established the university should be ignored.

That each university is autonomous. It is this same ASUU that said if you want a Vice Chancellor, it should be the Governing Council, not the Federal Government. That is what is operating now. There is no external interference now. This same Council that they are talking about appoints Vice Chancellors, not the federal government. So, what are we talking about?

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