The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has demanded immediate suspension of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, from directly engaging with the Academic Staff Union Universities (ASUU).
The union noted that the minister was destroying the country’s education and future.
The association in a statement signed by South West Zone D Coordinator, Adegboye Emmanuel Olatunji, Deputy Coordinator, Alao John and Public Relations Officer, Opeoluwa Awoyinfa, lamented that the long term effect of what it described as the ongoing mismanagement, victimisation and usage of public office to pursue personal vendetta and aggrandisement being engaged in by Ngige.
The students association said such posture would in the long run further decimate, degenerate and disfigure the already severely tattered and battered status of Nigeria's educational system.
The student association said that “In particular, Dr. Chris Ngige who turned a national issue to a battle of ego and walked out from meetings, disrespected officials, spearheaded registration of rival unions, took ASUU to court, instructed payment of half salary and further complicated the matter.”
NANS recalled that recently, President Buhari approved the immediate removal of the Director General of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Brig. Gen. Mohammed Fadah, on ground of incompetence while Ngige remains in office without retribution in spite of myriad of allegations that have been levelled against him.
“The partiality being displayed by the presidency is giving credence to the public belief that Ngige is working for the cabal.
“For the upteenth time, we want to summarily disagree with the misguided, ill-advised and erroneous decision to engage the pro rata payment system for the remuneration of ASUU members,” the association said.
NANS insisted that “The half salary payment is nothing but an outright attempt to casualise, denigrate and abase the highly distinguished and prestigious intellectual professionals.
“The premise of the argument that they can only be paid for the job they did reeks of ignorance.”
The association reminded the federal government while it hold on to its “No work, no pay” policy, it should not forget the fact that upon resumption, the syllabus would still be covered by the lecturers and assignments, tests, projects, examinations, and other academic activities that ab initio should have held in the course of the academic session would still hold.
“Therefore, since the lecturers would still complete the 2020/21 session, there is no justification for the half salary payment.”
NANS noted that the peculiarity of the academic sector demands that academic staff members work within an academic session calendar and not just months, therefore this peculiarity and commonsense should prevail over ego and self-dom.
“Finally, we demand that President Muhammad Buhari suspend Ngige from directly interfacing with ASUU as he has displayed inability to curtail his emotions and personal interest from interfering with his official assignment.
“He has shown himself to be unable to achieve objectivity and therefore must be replaced by a credible alternative. It is non-negotiable that maximum attention be paid to the educational sector as its output quality will determine the quality of people who will take charge of the National affairs in the future.
“To be more explicit, if Ngige is allowed to destroy the Academic industry, then the future of Nigeria is indeed bleak and hanging in the balance.”