ASUU, Please don't go on strike

[Toyin Falola]

I could not reach Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, Chairman of ASUU, before I wrote this. I will keep calling.

I have been pleading for two days for ASUU not to continue with its indefinite strike because of global circumstances around the Coronavirus and our collective citizenship. What is paramount should be how to be part of resolving a moment of depression and uncertainties among billions of people.

Oil revenues have also crashed. There is a global economic meltdown and all of us will pay a heavy price. Those of us planning to retire can no longer do so, thus blocking the way for others to enter the academy and moves it forward.

I have spoken with some ASUU folks, and hopefully, they will come together and realize that this is bad timing.

They should call off the strike and begin to put in place distance learning instruments to keep the students busy.

TF

[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

And here's my small "debate" with a Facebook interlocutor.

Ndidi Uche Samuel So you expect a people who were not paid their entitlement to go to work? Especially in this period and time when coronavirus is ravaging the world. Other nations are creating palliative measures to cushion the effect of the virus and help the citizens…See More

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  Moses Ochonu Stop with the familiar ASUU propaganda and distortions. They already declared a two-week warning strike to force the FG to negotiate, and to protest the nonpayment of their February salary due to ASUU's refusal o enroll in IPPIS. That was before corona and school closures. Now, all schools are closed, so what good is a strike? What's the strategic utility of a strike when, a) schools are already closed and so the effect would not be felt, and b) when school, ASUU, strike, and IPPIS are the last things on the minds of Nigerians, FG, and people across the globe? My post is not about the issues in contention; I have my position on them. It is about the timing and strategical foolishness of the announcement of a national strike during an expanding global pandemic. So how will declaring an indefinite strike when schools are already closed and the FG is preoccupied with a national/global emergency get the FG to get rid of IPPIS and/or pay whatever ASUU claims is owed its members? Pick your fights wisely and know the right time to strike. Now, with this announcement ASUU has further damaged its already battered reputation and reinforced what most Nigerians already believe about the union--that it is an insensitive, selfish, stupidly irrational, and increasingly irrelevant, militant, and obstructionist body. How is that good for the long term image or interest of ASUU or its members?

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On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 12:32 PM Moses Ebe Ochonu <meoc...@gmail.com> wrote:

Here's my facebook update from earlier today:

So the geniuses who lead ASUU reckon that today (as Nigeria and other countries deal with a deadly pandemic) is the right time to declare an indefinite national strike. And yet they wonder why they've become the butt of snide remarks and jokes about irrational intransigence, and why Nigerians now consider the union the most selfish, insensitive, and counterproductive force in Nigerian higher education. ASUU is now a byword for self-absorbed, narcissistic, and unaccountable militancy. Who needs detractors and critics when ASUU is doing an excellent job of destroying what is left of its reputation and image? Absolutely no sense of timing, strategy, optics, prudence, and common sense. And their leaders are PhDs? I want to puke.

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[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

Here's my facebook update from earlier today:

So the geniuses who lead ASUU reckon that today (as Nigeria and other countries deal with a deadly pandemic) is the right time to declare an indefinite national strike. And yet they wonder why they've become the butt of snide remarks and jokes about irrational intransigence, and why Nigerians now consider the union the most selfish, insensitive, and counterproductive force in Nigerian higher education. ASUU is now a byword for self-absorbed, narcissistic, and unaccountable militancy. Who needs detractors and critics when ASUU is doing an excellent job of destroying what is left of its reputation and image? Absolutely no sense of timing, strategy, optics, prudence, and common sense. And their leaders are PhDs? I want to puke.

On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 12:24 PM Toyin Falola <toyin...@austin.utexas.edu> wrote:

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[Anthony Akinola]

Their leadership has presented to the outside world that we are a bunch of thoughtless and irresponsible  people.

Whatever may be their grouse, this useless strike of theirs is ill-timed.

Anthony Akinola

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[Toyin Falola]

Dear sir:

Please don’t use “thoughtless and irresponsible people” for our colleagues. You like kola nuts, I like bitter nuts, no wahala!

TF

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[Anthony Akinola]

 Thanks Prof, just angry that the supposedly most enlightened breed of our society cannot comprehend the mood we all are in the world today.

462 human beings died in Spain alone today. With lack of facilities, it is a matter of conjecture what would be the outlook in Nigeria if we failed

in our bid to contain this very dangerous coronavirus.

Please keep well Prof

Regards,

Anthony Akinola

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[segun ogungbemi]

TF,

Please don't call anyone on the strike. It is not necessary. 

Prof. Segun Ogungbemi

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[Emmanuel Udogu]

I seldom comment on matters concerning ASUU due in part to my ignorance of the issues on university campuses at home. However, many of us who are your brothers and sisters as professionals in the diaspora wish to join brother Toyin Falola in pleading with you to suspend your strike action as a patriotic stance or gesture. This should be done in view of the contemporary health issue confronting the world—not least Nigeria and our continent with inadequate ammunition to combat this deadly virus.

Ike Udogu

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[Assensoh, Akwasi B.]

Dear SIR Toyin and Professor Udogu ((Brother Ike):

As a Nigerian at heart, I wish to commend both of you and anyone, for that matter, who has asked ASUU to

suspend its strike action. After all, if the action will allow its members to stay home and rest, there is no need 

for it, as COVID-19 has taken care of that. 

Also, what happens, in this critical period, if ASUU's employer, out of frustration, says: "All ASUU members are 

fired from their jobs, and henceforth no salaries will be paid?" Remember, this is a time that ASUU cannot go to any 

court for either an injunction or a redress; or so, there will be nobody with whom to sit down and negotiate! So, a word 

to the wise -- as we learnt in primary school -- is always enough!

A.B. Assensoh.

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From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Emmanuel Udogu <udo...@appstate.edu>
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2020 3:40 PM
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Subject: [External] Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - ASUU, Please don't go on strike

 

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[Jibrin Ibrahim]

ASUU lives in another world, which they think revolves around their pecuniary interests. SAD

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Doctors have suspended their own strike bcs of the emergency 

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[Ayotunde Bewaji]

Dear Ojogbon Agba Oloye Rekereke Sir,

Greetings Sir.

The world has been ravaged by COVID-19, aka Novel Coronavirus. This has led to uncertainties and cancellations of plans. At the UWI Mona Campus, Jamaica, we have had to cancel the "Caliban's Reason - 20 Years Strong" Humanities Conference which was supported by Corporate Jamaica in an unprecedented way. We thank them for this support and hope the partnership will wax stronger in the years to come, COVID-19 sparing.

Now, with regard to our UI African Philosophy Conference planned and advertised for July 8-11, 2020, we have been very happy to thank you for the use of USA Africa Dialogue Series platform to promote the Conference, as we have been receiving positive inquiries and conference abstracts from all over global Africa. But, unfortunately, due to the global pandemic, COVID-19, aka Novel Coronavirus, we wish to ask you to help us circulate the attached Press Release, announcing the postponement of the Conference till a later date when the atmosphere is conducive.

We hope our colleagues and stakeholders will understand and heed our call at a later date for us to convene this very important Conference. 

Wishing you the best of health in these troubling times.

Ire o.

Tunde.

Dr. John Ayotunde (Tunde) Isola BEWAJI, FJIM, MNAL
Professor of Philosophy
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Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy
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             johnayotu...@gmail.com

             tunde...@yahoo.com (alternate) 
             tunde....@gmail.com (alternate)

http://www.cap-press.com/books/isbn/9781611630879/Narratives-of-Struggle (2012)
http://www.amazon.com/Black-Aesthetics (2012)

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739185032/Ontologized-Ethics (2013)

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781498518383/The-Rule-of-Law-and-Governance-in-Indigenous-Yoruba-Society-A-Study-in-African-Philosophy-of-Law (2016)

http://www.cambridgescholars.com/the-humanities-and-the-dynamics-of-african-culture-in-the-21st-century (2017)

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[Moses Ebe Ochonu]

I honestly do not know why ASUU thinks that anyone in Nigeria (or in the wider world) cares a hoot about ASUU, universities, strike, or IPPIS at this moment of global existential anxiety. I must chalk it up to hubris, navel-gazing, narcissism, and self-absorption, and deficiency in strategic thinking---all traits that we have been warning ASUU against for more than a decade. They called us names and continued on their path of self-immolation. Now, all of these habits have crystallized in this single strike announcement, putting the folly and arrogant selfishness of the union on display for the whole country to see.

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[Emma. 'Ozili]

I salute both Udogu and TF on their contributions on this matter. From the little I observed while I was there, the root cause of incessant ASUU strike stems from non-payment of allowances already negotiated and approved to end previous strikes which were not honored by the government. This is in addition to the current retirement/pension deduction format brouhaha which is exacerbated by the Senators negotiating Federal loans to import Toyota Camry cars for approximately $40,000.00 (before duties) each, while locally manufactured Innoson equivalent cars sell for almost half the price. There is this African proverb which cautions the dog not to carelessly chew on the native doctor’s divination bag, while the native doctor should not carelessly curse the dog. While we plead to our colleagues for considerations in holding our kids hostage in Nigerian Universities, we should also collectively call on the Federal government and congressmen to stop underfunding education and tertiary institutions and treat professors as equal partners in country’s development. Its time to stop this war of attrition with students as hostages, and begin to look at Ghana and Rwanda.

Emma. Onyeozili

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: Emmanuel Udogu
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2020 4:21 PM
To: usaafricadialogue

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

a balanced view, Emma

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