Heeding to an advice by the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASSU), parents yesterday refused to release their wards to resume lectures after spending five months at home. The Federal Government had last Thursday given the lecturers December 4 deadline to return or be sacked.
However, the Federal Government yesterday extended the deadline to December 9 in honour of the late former president of ASUU, Prof. Festus Iyayi, who died in a motor accident in Kogi State last month. He was on his way to attend the National Executive Council (NEC) congress in Kano.
The government's directive to ASUU to call off the strike incensed the lecturers.
Just like the trend which was witnessed in some campuses on Monday, only state-owned universities are complying with the directive to sign the register. It was the turn of the Ebonyi State University, Abakiliki yesterday where lectures took place in all the departments at its three campuses. Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, opened its doors to students and lecturers on Monday.
It was a different ball game at federal universities. Parents held on to their children, citing the advice and warning of the striking lecturers.
But more universities are announcing dates of resumption in line with the government's directive. However, ASUU members refused to shift their position with many staying away from the lecture halls nor signing the register opened by the vice chancellors.
PARENTS' POSITION
Some of the parents said that they decided to keep their wards at home due to the precarious situation on campuses coupled with the long distance their wards would have to travel before getting to their campuses with no sign of lectures holding in the few institutions that have opened.
One of them Alhaji Saka Olakunle, whose two wards are students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, told Daily Sun that he decided to keep his children rather than rush them back to the campus because the face-off between FG/ASUU is becoming dicey. He said the striking lecturers immediately the government gave the directive told parents not to bother sending their wards to the campuses and that he is watching the situation.
A trader, Mr. Francis Okechukwu, said one of his sons who went to his university soon after the directive has called to say that nothing was happening. He has opted to hold unto the other two who are students of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) "I am not in a hurry to send them to the campus, ASUU warned us to keep our children at home, that is what I have done until the strike is called off''.
A 300 level student of Abia State University, Comfort Ike, said that she is monitoring the situation from Lagos and that some of her colleagues who travelled are stranded on the campus because the lecturers insisted they are on strike and asked them to return home.
Less than 24 hours to the deadline, some of the striking lecturers held their congresses yesterday and again resolved to continue the industrial action and expecting that tomorrow (today) would come and pass like any ordinary day.
The ASUU University of Lagos Chairman, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, said that the branch held its congress yesterday and decided to continue. "We are waiting to see what will happen tomorrow (today). We are not scared, they have done it before and nothing happened. We are waiting to see what they will do'', he said.
According to him, there are no security personnel at the two main gates and that the Senate of the university has not met to take a decision on resumption, noting ''we are expecting the President to respond to our letter'', stressing that the other two colleagues who attempted to opt out are now back to the fold''.
The ASUU University of Benin Chairman, Dr. Anthony Monye-Emina, also said that the congress held yesterday and resolved that members should not sign the register and those who had signed went back to cancel their names after the meeting.
According to him, since the directive to vice chancellors to re-open the universities, none of his members has gone back to the lecture halls and that there are no policemen/soldiers on the campus.
ASUU OAU Chairman, Prof Peter Akinola, faulted the directive, stressing that the universities have a tradition of inviting students back to school which is through the Senate which he said has not met to re-open the institution.
He described as a ruse and panic by the vice chancellors to comply with the directive of the ''oga at the top'' and even as he picked holes in the invitation of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and other student union leaders to Abuja to discuss the ASUU strike.
At the Ebonyi State University, lecturers attended to students. At the College of Agricultural Sciences, students were seen receiving lectures while others were either loitering or discussing in groups. At the Department of Animal Sciences and Law Faculty, students confirmed they received lectures in the morning.
"We have started lectures since last week, even now we have just received lectures but I don't know about other departments," Okechukwu Mbam, a second year Agric Science student said.
A senior lecturer in the Department of English, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that lectures commenced last week at the institution, adding that students were gradually returning. "I taught my students twice last week. The school is bubbling and the students are gradually returning.
Meanwhile, the one-week ultimatum given to ASUU to call off its strike and return to lectures or else be sacked, and which was originally fixed for today, has been shifted till Monday, December 9.
In an exclusive chat with Daily Sun, the Supervising Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike,noted that the extension of the deadline was being done in honour of the late Prof. Iyayi, who will be buried this weekend.
Already, final rites leading to his internment have commenced. Wike who noted that the postponement was being done in honour of Iyayi, who he said was going to prevail on the union to call off the strike before he lost his life in a fatal motor accident, added that it would have been insensitive on the part of the government to still carry out the report-or-be-sacked order in the week that the man is being buried.
Culled from the sun
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