By Onoja Johnson Baba
The “no pay, no work” action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Kogi State University chapter, may last longer than predictions and speculations as the government has said it cannot afford more than the four months’ salary arrears paid to the lecturers earlier this month.
The decision of the state government was contained in a report made available from a meeting held between the ASUU-KSU team and the Kogi state government team led by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Ayoode Folashade Arike on the 28th June, 2016 at the SSG conference room in the state capital, Lokoja.
According to the report, the governor through his representative told the union team that if her memebers are still interested in lecturing at the state’s highest citadel of learning, KSU, they should go back to the class or else the government may take its own stand.
The SSG who also said the governor said he will not shift ground on the issue of tax, made it known that the meeting would be the last meeting the state government may have with the aggrieved lecturers. However, ASUU in their response to the message delivered by the SSG said it would take what the governor has said to her principal and thereafter, they would respond what their stand would be after a congress is held.
The ASUU strike which has grounded the academic and commercial activities in the school and around the host community, Anyigba, has lasted for about 78 days without any sign of calling it off.
In a related development, the Student Union President, comrade Philip Shaibu has described the role of ASUU and the government in the strike as ‘almighty.’ The SUG president who wrote in a tone that shows he is powerless and cannot confront any of the parties made this known via his face book account about six days ago.
Philip, in the Facebook post, also said that what has made the strike issue unresolved up to this date is pride. He further enjoined the government and the union to get mature, reasonable and responsible so as to bring the lingering strike to an end. In his words, “… the heart of the proudest of kings is in the hands of God almighty, and as to you Almighty ASUU and government, you can only slow our academic programme and destiny but you cannot stop us forever, and let posterity be the judge as we are all watching and hoping that you guys get matured, reasonable and responsible sooner than later.”
On the side of the students, the strike action is causing more harm than expected as many students are running their academic calendar with age in consideration. To this set of students, if the strike persist, they may not be able to meet up with the prime age limit mostly sought after in the labor market as many private and public organizations and companies are now going for younger graduates. Notable among this phenomenon is the ongoing EFCC recruitment that required applicants to be below 26 years of age. Sterling bank and others follow suit.
The attitude of the government towards the strike has also triggered many allegations and suspicion from the students and individual concerned as there are reports from unreliable sources that the governor is only killing the institution ‘stylishly.’ Similarly, there was also a report that the state governor, Yahaya Bello had a terrible face-off with the ASUU chairman, Comrade Gbenga Aina and that was not unconnected to the governors alleged travel denial.
There are also allegations that why the lecturers seem not to be pleased by the government offer so far is that some of them were made to pay for the loans they took from the government from the four months back log salary paid to them. An action that was said to have left some of the lecturers with little or nothing in their accounts and as such, the need to hold the government to pay the salaries owing them to the last kobo becomes inevitable.
