ASUU drags Governor Bello to court over ban of union’s activities
The Acting
Chairman of the union in KSU, Dr Daniel Aina, told newsmen yesterday that apart
from challenging the ban on the union’s activities, ASUU was also challenging
the sack of 120 academic staff of the institution by government.
The union
said it resorted to court after every attempt at reconciliation was rebuffed by
the state government.
Aina said:
“The government of Kogi State, the governing council and management of Kogi
State University, Anyigba, have taken steps which violate our fundamental human
right and flouted the rules and regulations governing our contractual
intercourse with the University. We thought it is common knowledge that
proscription of a trade union is beyond the jurisprudence of an Executive
Governor.
“We have
given time for this error to be corrected. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)
made an attempt to wade into the matter, highlighting its illegality, but it
was rebuffed. Twice we were at the office of the Honourable Minister for Labour
and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige in his bid for reconciliation but, the
Government of Kogi State never showed up.
“ASUU has
made a request to have audience with the Governor of Kogi State in a bid to
finding a common ground for reconciliation, which was equally dishonored out
rightly.
“It must be
noted that while ASUU was in a protracted strike of “seven months”, no move was
ever made by the Government of Kogi State or the Governing Council to reach a
common ground.
“It was
always either injunction or instruction to resume work without any pragmatic
steps to resolve the issues at stake. To us, this does not portray responsible
leadership.”
The union
regretted that academics that found themselves in management positions were
working against the interest of its members, noting that the legal action was
the only avenue remained to salvage the situation.
Aina
continued: “ASUU has gone to court to seek for redress of the contentious
issues to wit: the Proscription of ASUU KSU, Anyigba and the termination of the
appointment of 120 academic staff members of Kogi State University, Anyigba.
“It is
pathetic and unfortunate that taking a cursory look at the list of the
purportedly sacked lecturers, identifying the courses they teach, the
reallocation of such courses and identifying those who are assigned to teach
those courses, it is crystal clear that the ‘one ready to kill has met the one
ready to die’ while not knowing that there is no one to bury.
“KSU,
Anyigba has degenerated almost beyond the pre-2005 era. Unethical practices are
done with imminent colossal damage in an effort to create the impression that
all is well within the system. Unqualified persons (Technologists, members of
the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and other non-teaching staff) are being
co-opted to teach courses and supervise student projects.
“In several
departments, postgraduate programmes have folded up completely and where there
seems to exist, they are being handled by unqualified persons; where a number
of Ph.D and master’s degree students did their external defenses without the
knowledge of their major supervisors.”
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