By Femi Falana
It is public knowledge that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila intervened in the last strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities. Several meetings were held with the relevant stakeholders by the leadership of the House. While briefing the Nigerian people of the resolution of the crisis on October 10, 2022, the Speaker did categorically state as follows:
*House Speaker, Gbajabiamila meets with ASUU executives“We agreed with ASUU and the
government on certain things which we took to Mr. President. I have visited the
President twice. First time we made our recommendations with the government
shifting some and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr. President. There was
one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. And the President did
ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting
which we did on Friday after the budget.
‘‘That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr. President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now and that he would disclose whatever it is tomorrow, Tuesday which is tomorrow.” (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/10/deal-sealed-asuu-strike-over-in-matter-of-days-gbajabiamila/) .
And when the Federal Government turned round to renege on the
vexed issue of “no work, no pay.” the Speaker assured the lecturers on October
24, 2022 of his ability to resolve the issues in dispute.
According to Gbajabiamila: “The Executive position that it is not
obligated to pay salaries to lecturers for the time spent on strike is premised
on the law and the government’s legitimate interest in preventing moral hazard
and discouraging disruptive industrial actions.
Nonetheless, interventions have been made to explore the
possibility of partial payments to the lecturers. We look forward to a
favourable consideration by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR,
who has manifested his desire to what is prudent and necessary to resolve all
outstanding issues.” (https://von.gov.ng/asuu-strike-my-ability-to-resolve-issues-wont-fail-gbajabiamila/).
From the information at my disposal, the intervention of the House leadership in resolving the crisis was sabotaged by a member of the Federal Executive Council.
Having been embarrassed in the circumstance, the Speaker should have
apologised to the ASUU and the Nigerian people instead of denying the agreement
reached with ASUU and President Buhari on the decision of the Federal
Government to pay for the period covered by the strike.
The
agreement was based on the commitment of the lecturers to ensure that 2021/2022
academic session was not cancelled.
*Falana
is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN).
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