“Resign and start farming” — ASUU fires back at Education Minister, Nwajuiba
By Emmanuel Awosika
The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday, ASUU, asked Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba, to resign and start farming.
The Chairman of ASUU, University of Ibadan Chapter, Professor Ayo Akinwole, stated this on Tuesday while responding to the Minister’s comment that striking lecturers should take up farming.
The Minister had on Monday criticized ASUU’s decision to protest the new Integrated Payroll and Personnel System, IPPIS, saying aggrieved lecturers should become farmers.
He stated, “Government is actually not holding anyone to ransom. It says ‘this is how I want to pay and it has to be through IPPIS (Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System)’ You can leave the employment. You can opt out of it and say ‘I no longer want to teach’. You can find other professions. What we need now are probably more farmers.
“You cannot keep forcing your employer and tell him, ‘I will like you to pay me my money through my pillow. Or, ‘I will like you to pay it through this mailbox’. ASUU has a lot of complaints and dissipation around.”
However, Akinwole berated the Minister for his comments and said it was indicative of his ignorance concerning educational affairs.
He said, “If the Minister of State for Education is interested in farming, he should resign his appointment and stop displaying his cluelessness of the problems in the education sector.
“We are on a just fight to ensure that those in public offices become responsive and responsible to the masses they swore to serve. They must fund public education. We have been on the same salary since 2009. That is no longer sustainable.
“The universities are being run with personal sweat of lecturers while politicians siphon money for personal aggrandizement. We cannot accept the IPPIS that is against the laws of the land and which fails to recognise the uniqueness of academic profession and culture.
“We have brought an alternative using our members’ money. People like this minister of state mirror the disdain of ruling class for the workers and people of the country.”
ASUU had on March 23, 2020 declared an indefinite industrial action to protest the IPPIS scheme and the FG’s non-implementation of agreements made with the union.
Earlier this week, the union said it would not suspend the strike even after the FG instructed tertiary institutions in the country to resume lectures on Monday, October 12.
