Yobe University joins ASUU strike, gives reasons
Academic activities for the 2018/2019 academic session are set to be disrupted in Yobe State University, YSU, following a total compliance with the nationwide strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU branch of the university in Damaturu.
The state university, which was to resume on the 19th of November, 2018 with lectures commencing on the 10th of December 2018, as stipulated in the recently released time table by the directorate of academic planning of the institution, may now be halted due to the ongoing strike.
The chairman of the ASUU branch, Mohammed Adamu Gulani, confirmed to DAILY POST that the academic staff of YSU have fully complied with the ongoing nationwide strike as directed by the mother union.
“Yes, Yobe State University branch is part of the ongoing ASUU strike. We are a chartered branch, so we have to join the strike,” he said.
Gulani explained that as a chartered branch, they cannot runaway from their mother union, despite that the university will soon commence the registration of new and returning students.
On the alleged non-compliance of ASUU strikes previously by the branch, he debunked the claim, stressing that the branch of the union since its inception over six years ago has been loyal to the national body of the union by answering calls for strike.
“Since the inception of our union as a chartered branch, we are fully complying with strike directives whenever the national body begins a nationwide strike, even the 2013 strike we fully joined it which lasted for six months,” he recounted.
Gulani disagreed with the notion that it was the state government that provided all infrastructures in the institution as assumed by some individuals, noting that a greater percentage of the structures were provided by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND NEEDS ASSESSMENT) over the years.
“When you go round the university almost everything is read TETFUND NEED ASSESSMENT. We know that the state government is doing its possible best to see that the university survives,” the chairman stated.
He was of the view that the strike action which the YSU branch joined was in the best interest of its members and the state at large.
In his words, “in 2013 when Federal Government disbursed money to all Nigerian universities, Yobe State University was included as it has benefited from that amount and now the Federal Government is still trying to give out N20 billion, still Yobe State University is going to enjoy. It is only chartered branches that were given this money.”
Gulani however expressed hopes that the government will look into the demands of the union in good time so that students, particularly in YSU, would not be denied coming back to the school.
Recall that ASUU has been at loggerheads with the federal government since the 4th of November, 2018 over what they described as insensitivity of the federal government to fund ailing Nigerian universities.
