Reps beg ASUU to suspend strike

Posted by admin House, Legislature Thursday, September 29th, 2011

House of Representatives yesterday begged warring Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU] to call off its on-going warning strike and also called on the Federal Government to legalize the nine newly established Universities

In two separate motions adopted by the House, it was observed that there were no laws backing the new universities expected to take off in September 2011 to regulate their internal and external activities.

Hon Faleke Abiodun who drew the attention of members to the establishment of the new universities without an enabling laws in a motion noted that “the establishment and operation of these universities without presenting their enabling Acts to the National Assembly was an infraction of Section 5 of the 1999 constitution of Nigeria, as amended and therefore the process of establishment remain inchoate”.

Two communities in Ekiti State had been at loggerheads over the location of the campus of the new Federal University to be located in the state. The House therefore called on the Federal Executive Council to forward a bill to the National Assembly to give legal backing to the establishment of the nine Universities.

On the motion over the on-going warning strike by University lecturers brought by the chairman of Education Committee, Hon Farouk Lawan, it noted that the strike by ASUU if allowed to linger ‘will have serious consequences on a sector that is already troubled’. According to him, the strikes in Nigerian Universities had become so common and perennial that the House needed to do something that would bring about permanent solution to the crisis.

“When the Academic Staff Union of Universities and government entered agreement in 2009, it was agreed that corporate organisations would be encouraged to fund research in universities while the retirement age of university lecturers would be raised from 65 to 70 years.” He revealed that though there was an attempt by the legislature to drive this process further by introducing private member bill which was passed by the two chambers, both ASUU and other stakeholders objected to its signing because, according to ASUU, the bill did not capture the spirit of the agreement reached between the two parties.

The House also passed into Second reading a Bill for an Act to amend the National Youth Service Corps [NYSC] Act, to make it mandatory for the authorities of NYSC to provide life Insurance policy for Corps members. Another bill which sailed through to the Second reading was the Bill for an Act to provide for and regulate community service for offenders in certain criminal cases. All is now set for the inauguration of the Standing Committees with the announcement of chairmen of additional five Committees by the speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.

Also Chairmen to head some of the old Committees have been named by the Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Speaker Tambuwal had on 14 September, 2011 announced the setting up of 80 House committees. But he declined to announce heads of some of the committees. They are the House Committee on Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Public Procurement, Jumoke Okoya-Thomas, Army, Muktar Garba, Judiciary, Aminu Shehu Shagari and Legislative compliance, Akinderu Fatai.

-Sunwp_posts