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The ASUP leader said the lecturers may call of their strike soon. The President of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Chibuzor Asomugha, on Wednesday said the Federal Government had stopped paying the striking lecturers salaries since March 21. Mr. Asomugha told journalists in Abuja that the “no-work-no pay rule’’ had forced the union to device other measures of sustaining its members. He accused the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, of “working at cross purposes with the union in the ongoing action instead of holistically addressing the issues surrounding it’’. The ASUP president said the minister was

In 2013, ASUU embarked on a strike to demand better. The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Nasir Fagge, said the union will pursue a significant increase in budgetary allocation to the education sector in 2014 to achieve UNESCO’s 26 percent recommendation. This was contained in a statement signed by Mr. Fagge on Thursday in Abuja. The ASUU president said that

PART 2... While many patriotic, objective and well-meaning Nigerians have already condemned the leaked letter as self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent, and very disrespectful of the highest office in the land, President Jonathan has directed that none of his aides or any government official should join issues with Chief Obasanjo over it.

PART 1... President Goodluck Jonathan has dismissed as “most reckless” and “unjustifiable” a fiercely scathing letter he received from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in which Mr. Obasanjo accused him of lying, condoning corruption, and leading Nigeria to the brink of collapse. A statement by the president’s aide, Reuben Abati, said the allegations by the former president were “baseless and indecorous.” The statement said Mr. Jonathan has directed his aides not to respond to the barrage of attacks and allegations from Mr. Obasanjo, listed in an 18-page letter exclusively published by PREMIUM TIMES. Mr. Jonathan will personally respond to the charges at the “appropriate time”, the statement said. “While many patriotic, objective and well-meaning Nigerians have already condemned the leaked letter as self-serving, hypocritical, malicious, indecent, and very disrespectful of the highest office in the land, President Jonathan has directed that none of his aides or any government of...

The ASUU leadership is to meet within a week to review the government’s offer and decide officially on the strike which began June 28. The government, on its part, is set up a committee to fully implement the agreement with the union. The Nigerian government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have reached an agreement, moving an inch closer to ending the five-month old strike by university lecturers.

PART 2 ... Mr. Obasanjo also accused Mr. Jonathan of placing over 1000 Nigerians on political watch list and “training snipers and other armed personnel secretly and clandestinely acquiring weapons to match for political purposes like Abacha and training them where Abacha trained his killers”. He wondered why the Presidency was providing assistance for a murderer to evade justice.

PART 1 An apparently angry & frustrated ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has written what clearly competes as one of the most acerbic letters in modern history to President Goodluck Jonathan, accusing him of ineptitude and of taking actions calculated at destroying Nigeria. “Nigeria is bleeding & the hemorrhage must be stopped,” Mr. Obasanjo said in the 18-page letter dated December 2, 2013 & exclusively obtained by LaNUBlog News on Tuesday.

The police in Rivers today disrupted a sitting of the Rivers state House of Assembly who were holding plenary for the first time since July when the House was sealed. Twenty-five of the 26 members of the House loyal to embattled Governor Rotimi Amaechi had converged on the Assembly earlier today to sit in compliance with a high court order barring the National Assembly from taking over the functions of the Assembly.

The SSANU of the Lagos University have been on strike since September 30. The striking Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Lagos State University (LASU), chapter, on Friday vowed that it would continue its strike until its demands were met. The Chairman of the chapter, Oseni Saheed, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.

LaNUBlog NEWS ARENA Learnt that The lecturers said they would only obey the directive of the national ASUU. The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), UNIJOS chapter, said on Tuesday that classes would only resume in the institution if directed by the national body. The chapter Chairman, David Jangdam, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Jos that the lecturers were waiting for directives from the national body before the five-month strike could be called off. “Classes will only resume if directed by the national body,’’ he said. Mr. Jangdam said that the decision of the national body was final and binding on all local chapters.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) rose from a two-day National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) on Saturday in Kano with a resolve to keep mum until it met with President Goodluck Jonathan.

University lecturers have been on strike since July 1. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin has called on the Federal Government and the Academic staff Union of Universities to create a “Monitoring Committee on Agreement”.

Mr. Saraki also asks the government not to toy with education if it is truly serious about developing the country. Former Kwara state governor, Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday said the time has come for the leadership and membership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to end the over four-month strike that has led to the disruption of academic activities in the Nation’s Universities. Mr. Saraki, who was reacting to the death on Tuesday of renowned academics and former President of ASUU, Dr. Festus Iyayi, in a road accident, said the union should consider calling off the strike in his memory. Mr. Iyayi was killed in the accident blamed on the convoy of the Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada, in Lokoja, while on his way to Kano for the National Executive Council meeting of ASUU. The NEC was to consider the proposal by President Goodluck Jonathan on ways to end the face-off with the Federal Government. Mr. Saraki, who represents Kwara Central Senatorial District in the National Ass...

The strike has been on since July 1. As university branches of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, held their congresses on Monday, signs are emerging that the more than four months strike embarked by the union might be suspended later this week. The President of the Union, Nasir Fagge, however, told PREMIUM TIMES that the union would not take a position on the strike until all its local branches conclude their meeting. Already, lecturers of the Lagos State University, at their congress held on Monday afternoon at the Ojo campus, resolved to suspend the strike following the latest offer by the Federal Government. PREMIUM TIMES also learnt that congresses were held at various universities and plans are already under way for the ASUU National Executive Council to meet in the next 48 hours to analyse decisions reached at university congresses which will determine whether the strike is suspended or not. After a marathon meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesda...

The former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Festus Iyayi, is dead, union officials said. Detail of the incident is still sketchy but a News Agency of Nigeria report says Mr. Iyayi, 66, died in a motor accident in Lokoja. The late university teacher was among ASUU leaders who met with President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja last week to deliberate on how to end the four-month strike by lecturers. Mr. Iyayi is believed to be travelling to Kano for Wednesday’s National Executive Committee meeting where a vote is likely to be taken on whether the ongoing strike should be called off. Details later… Below is Mr. Iyayi’s brief biography as published by Wikipedia. Iyayi was born in Edo state, Nigeria. His family lived on little means but instilled in him strong moral lessons about life. Iyayi started his education at Annuciation Catholic College in the old Bendel state popularly known as ACC finishing in 1966. In 1967 he went to Government College Ughelli, graduating i...

We rebuke prominent people who exude words of sympathy to victims of terrorist attacks by militant Islamist sect, Boko Haram. We refuse to be infatuated by pity. Rather than spitting down pathetic condolences, they should take it on themselves, as should everybody else, to find a resolution that will durably curb the viability of such cowardly radical actions. After all, whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. At this point therefore, the role of education in Nigeria, especially in the northeast, cannot be more understated. It is as a result of poor and substandard quality of education up north, in this great country, that as substantially fomented the level of terrorist activities. This is particular to their – Abubakar and his marionettes – recruiting of young people, who themselves feel aggrieved and unsatisfied towards the present administration of president Jonathan -and its primogenitors. Education is the only bedrook, ergo the best solution that can safe Nigeri...

The real question is, what does the vice-chancellors of universities do with all the fees paid by students and rents paid by staff living in university quarters? A breakdown of the fees shows that students pay for maintenance, light, medical, sports, library, cafe, lab/audio visuals etc, take for instance, in a hostel the actual number of students who are supposed to accomodate a hostel room is four per lodge. This number multiplied by hostel fee of ten thousand naira (NGN10,000). Collectively equals to forty thousand naira (NGN40,000) some even pay for this fee and still dont get accomodated inside the hostel but rather stay off campus without getting a refund of payment. An average second generation university has at least thirty thousand students in a session, multiply this number to the fees paid by full time students of twenty five thousand naira (NGN25,000) yearly, this sums up to seven hundred and fifty million naira (NGN750,000,000). This money can be used to maintain infrast...

President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday in Ado-Ekiti appealed to members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to return to the classrooms in the interest of their students. He made the appeal at the inauguration of the College of Engineering Complex at the Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State. The three-storey college complex was also named after the President. Jonathan urged ASUU members to heed his appeal saying that whatever their grievances might be, keeping students out of school for four months was unpatriotic. "I once again appeal to the entire membership of ASUU to pause and ponder on the adverse effect of their action on the future of the vibrant youths of this great nation. "The collective destiny of tens of thousands of tomorrow's leaders should not be held hostage to vagaries of labour disputes. "As long as we are humans, as long as we are a developing society, this labour dispute must come up. "I always say that even ...

It seems to me that things rarely go the way I would like them to. Or even the way I thought they would. If I recall correctly, I had planned at various times to be the greatest advocate for education, to be a crackerjack lawyer, to be a very successful medical doctor, to be an ever-reliable engineer, and to be the voice of every streets and households in my darling country, Nigeria. Instead, I stay idle and thoughtful, alone in my world. How did that happen? Something like this, I suppose... As a young child from a rich and resourceful background dreams were as bright as the sunshine and hopes as high as mountain. I am the only fruit of the union of my father and mother despite coming from a polygamous family. My father is a very rich, elegant, intelligent, but cunning man. As against the law of nature, my father gets more agile as he gets older. At 53, I guess that explains why he has as many wives as the number of women ever seen with him. Mother, they say, is the first true fri...

Owerri - The Governing Council of the Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), has appealed to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to end their strike. Dr Emmanuel Enemuo, Pro Chancellor and Chairman of the council, made the appeal on Saturday at a news conference in Owerri. Enemuo noted that the Federal Government had demonstrated commitment to addressing the most contentious issues in the 2009 agreement. He explained that government had approved the payment of earned allowances and revitalisation of universities through adequate funding with the release of N130 billion. He said further that government also promised to pay any shortfalls after due verification by the councils of the various universities. Emeno said that the funds already released were sourced from different government agencies such as the Central bank, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the National Communications Commission (NCC). He stated that the government had promise...