The Rivers State University of Science and Technology chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared readiness to dialogue with River State Government to end its four-month-long strike.
The Rivers State University of Science and Technology chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared readiness to dialogue with River State Government to end its four-month-long strike.
The union embarked on strike on 13th August to challenge the re-appointment of Prof. Barineme Fakae as the institution?s Vice Chancellor. The Union says Governor Chibuike Amaechi did not follow due process in the re-appointment.
The chapter chairman, Dr Felix Igwe complained that the the government of the state should be held responsible for the ongoing strike by lecturers in the university because of its refusal to dialogue with the union.
He alleged that the union?s meeting of 15th August held to seek possible solution to the impasse was disrupted by thugs sponsored by the university administration. ?The union had always been ready to talk; it is the absence of dialogue (with government) that brought about the strike in the first instance. The day I was attacked with other members of the union, we were holding meeting and that attack was sponsored by the university administration and led by the Chief Security Officer of the university.
“The Vice Chancellor, the university administration and the government are not interested in any kind of discussion at all. The union is available, willing, and always there to engage in discussion and because they (university administration) know that what they have done is wrong, that?s why they don?t want to open an avenue for discussion because when you discuss, superior opinion will prevail.??
On the university?s claims that 70 per cent of striking lecturers had resumed academic activities, Igwe described the claims as false and untrue. He said that lecturers would resume academic activities only when government followed the provisions of the law of the university in appointing a Vice Chancellor.
The unionist said that the university administration had currently embarked on propaganda to misinform the public to believe that academic activities were on-going in the university. ?It is understandable because more than 80 per cent of membership of (the university) Senate is composed of Heads of Department that are appointed by the Vice Chancellor and we didn?t expect anything less.
?The Kangaroo exams that were conducted; where lecturers did not participate and they went ahead to hire people from outside, paid them heavily in order to create a wrong impression to the public to say everything is going on; it is unfortunate. This strike is a strike of integrity; this is a strike that has to do with the future of the university and the fact that rules need to be obeyed,? he said.
