FG’s motion for the court to order ASUU to resume is denied

Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports

President Muhammadu Buhari, Chief of Staff Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Minister of Labor and Employment Senator Chris Ngige, and Minister of State for Education Goodluck Nana Opiah during a meeting with the Chairman and a few members of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities and the President at the State House. Prof. Funmi Birkerstat, Prof. Olufemi Obafemi, Ambassador Godknows Igali, Prof. Munzali Jibril, Ambassador Bashir Dalhatu,

Buhari Meets With Pro-Chancellors On September 19

The Federal Government requested Monday that the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Abuja order the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which is currently on strike, to resume classes while a lawsuit contesting the strike is being heard.

Even as he promised to undertake additional meetings with key stakeholders in order to put a stop to the ongoing strike by university teachers, President Muhammadu Buhari met yesterday with the Chairman and a select group of provosts from federal universities.

James Igwe (SAN), the attorney for the federal government, asked the court to order ASUU to continue work while the lawsuit was being decided at the resumed session.

Femi Falana (SAN), the defendant’s attorney, contested the proposal since doing so would equate to deciding the merits of the lawsuit.

In agreement with Falana, Justice P. L. Hammam stated that as it was a question that needed to be decided, it could not be settled beforehand.

The counsel filed a different application that was only served on the party yesterday, therefore the SERAP application to be added as an interested party in the lawsuit was not heard in the interim.

The attorney for SERAP requested that the court dismiss the prior application and replace it with the present one. Later, the court dismissed the initial application.

The attorney also stated that his application should be heard before considering other lawsuit-related issues for the purpose of justice.

Falana, the defendant’s attorney, concurred that, for the sake of fairness and clarity, it would be appropriate to hear the motion made by SERAP relative to the same matter before other matters were decided.

He did, however, add that the defendant (ASUU) was moving to meet with interested parties to ensure that the situation was resolved and that a postponement had been requested for the ongoing filing process.

In response, the federal government’s attorney urged the court to expedite the substantive suit’s hearing due to the pressing need for kids to be able to return to their schools.

Additionally, he said that because SERAP had not served him with the application, it was not ready for a hearing.

The court concurred in its decision that the application from SERAP was not yet ready for hearing because the party had only received service of it yesterday through the Ministry of Justice.

As a result, the judge postponed the lawsuit’s hearing to Monday, September 19.

While speaking with the Pro-Chancellors at the State House in Abuja, President Buhari said, “I will make more discussions, and I’ll get back to you,” without necessarily reversing the established course of action.

Prof. Nimi Briggs escorted the Pro-Chancellors to the meeting and said that they were there to meet the President in his capacity as “President and Commander-in-Chief, as father of the nation, and as Visitor to the federal institutions.”

He continued, citing as an example the recent listing of the University of Ibadan among the top 1,000 universities in the world, a development occurring for the first time, as saying that despite the shadow cast on the country by the more than seven months of industrial action, “the future of university system in the country is good.”

Briggs applauded the Federal Government for the concessions previously made to the academics on strike, including the proposal to increase pay by a total of 23.5% and by 35% for professors.

However, according to a statement signed by Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, and provided to newsmen, he requested “further inching up of the wage in view of the economic position of the country.”

The Pro-Chancellors also requested that the government rethink its No-Work, No-Pay policy, assuring that professors would make up for lost time as soon as an acceptable resolution was found and schools resumed operations.

Goodluck Nana Opiah, the minister of state for education, claimed that all of the concessions given by the federal government were taken to guarantee that the industrial action ended but bemoaned the fact that ASUU has persisted.