On the Most Complete Information on ASUU Presidency So Far { - Re: NIDOA | Iwu Vs Jega

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Mobolaji ALUKO

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Jun 10, 2010, 7:30:40 PM6/10/10
to Yinka Banwo, USAAfrica Dialogue, NaijaPolitics e-Group, NIDOA, ekiti ekitigroups, OmoOdua
 
Yinka Banwo:
 
Thanks immensely for the most complete list of Presidents and Vice-Presidents of ASSU since its inception so far.
 
I don't see Dr. Maurice Iwu's name in the Vice-Presidency so far.  So what was his "National Vice-Chairman's" position?
 
Inquiring minds want to know.
 
 
 
Bolaji Aluko


 
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yinka Banwo <yob...@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 4:29 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NIDOA | Iwu Vs Jega
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com


Presidents and Vice-Presidents of ASUU
Dr. Biodun Jeyifo? (OAU Ife) ---  President
Dr Mahmud Tukur?   ---Vice President
 
Dr. Mahmud Tukur (ABU Zaria)  1982-86
Dr. Festus Iyayi (UNIBEN) -- Vice President.
 
Dr. Festus Iyayi  (UNIBEN)  1986-88
Dr. Attahiru Jega (BUK) ---Vice President..
 
Dr. Attahiru Jega (BUK)  1988-1994
Dr. Sola Olukunle  ( U.Ibadan)-- Vice President.
 
Dr. Assissi Asobie (UNN) 1994-2000
Dr. Tanimu Abubakar (ABU)-- Vice President.
 
Dr. Dipo Fashina (OAU) 2000-2004
Dr. Sule Kano (UNISOK)-- Vice President.
 
Dr. Sule Kano (UNISOK) 2004-2008
Dr. Offiong (UNICAL) -- Vice President (2004-2006)
Dr. Ogbam Nyam(UNN)  --- Vice President (2006-2008) 
 
Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie (IMSU) 2008-Present
Dr. Nassir Fagge (BUK) --- Vice President 
 
 
Yinka.
 

--- On Thu, 10/6/10, Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: NIDOA | Iwu Vs Jega
To: "Okwy Okeke" <okwud...@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: "All Nigerians In Diaspora" <NI...@yahoogroups.com>, "NaijaPolitics e-Group" <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com>, "USAAfrica Dialogue" <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>, "OmoOdua" <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>, "naijaintellects" <naijain...@googlegroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 10 June, 2010, 19:56


 
Okwy:
 
Well, we shall continue to do a "Sherlock Holmes" on these dates until we knock 'em down.
 
First, according to the ASUU website Prof. Attahiru Jega was ASUU president from 1988-1994, after a one- or two-year interruption due to its being banned in August 1988 (under the IBB-as-president-Aminu-as-education-minister regime) and de-proscribed in 1990.  By the time Saro-Wiwa was extrajudicially killed in November of 1994, Dr. Asobie was already President of ASUU.
 
QUOTE
 
 
The strike led to the proscription of ASUU on August 7, 1988. With Professor Jibril Aminu as Minister of Education, the Federal Government banned ASUU, seized all its properties, made announcements directing all universities to immediately pay the EUSS, backdated to January. ASUU responded by forming a new UNIVERSITY LECTURERS ASSOCIATION (ULA). But the proscription broke the back of the strike. Members returned to work. The President, Dr. Attahiru Jega and the Immediate Past President, Dr. Festus Iyayi, were detained and tortured. Passports of ASUU officials were seized. Dr. F. Dimowo (late) and Mr. F. Amade (Ag. Chairman and Secretary of the University of Benin, respectively) were also detained.........
 
In 1990, ASUU was de-proscribed. In 1991, following the Delegates Conference in Badagry, ASUU asked the Babangida regime for negotiation. There were two rounds of negotiation: The first, under the chairmanship of Mr. Senas Ukpanah, broke down when, following a disagreement on Governments offer on salary, the chairman unilaterally suspended negotiation (May 30, 1991). This was followed by governments announcement of a unilateral package........
 
Abachas regime would grant the union considerable concessions. ASUU demonstrated its unwillingness to trade principle for concessions when it took an open, very strong and unambiguous condemnation of the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa. This was to draw a letter “from the Minister of Education, Dr. Ibrahim T. Liman, to Dr. H.A. Asobie, then President of ASUU, that ASUU was jeopardizing its relationship with Government.

ASUU did not change its position and instead, began to strengthen its relationship with the civil society organizations. That Dr. Iyorcha Ayu and Dr. T. Liman were former members of ASUU ¢â¬â€œ Dr. Ayu, UNIJOS Chairman before he left the university, did not help ASUUs struggles. (It was then Dr. Abraham Imogie who, later, as the Minister of Education in Ernest Shonekans Government, that showed, without apology, understanding of ASUUs positions.)

UNQUOTE
 
Ayu and Liman had shown previously that prior membership of ASUU did not mean progressive action in government - as Iwu was to show many years later.
 
Having established Jega's tenure, when was Maurice Iwu at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and when did he become a professor?  You say he was at UNN till 1989, but on the INEC website, it says differently - 1993 - a four-year difference:
 
 
QUOTE
 
 
Professor Maurice Mmaduakolam Iwu was born on April 21 st , 1950 in Umuezeala, Umukabia, Ehime Mbano in Imo State .........
 
He was formally a Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1984-1993), ....
 
UNQUOTE
 
That needs to be authoritatively resolved, unless he was just reporting at UNN without remuneration, or he was on some kind of sabbatical when you thought he had left.
 
Now his period of stay at UNN is repeated in his extraordinarily flowery citation for an honorary degree at Imo State University on May 2, 2009, where, inter-alia he is said to have become a professor at age 34:
 
QUOTE
 
 
His professional career has been as eventful as it been rewarding, not only for him as a person, but also for the larger and humanity. He has a focused and dogged intellectual all his adult life, with a working career that spans the realms of academics, research and administration. He has been a teacher, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (1984-1993), where he became a professor at the age of 34. As a researcher he occupies an enviable place in the realm of scientific research, in specifics in the area of medicinal plants. The many parents he has for original discoveries speak of his success as a researcher.
 
UNQUOTE
 
But since he was born in 1950, age 34 would put the year he became professor at 1984 - the same year he joined UNN!  Is the the case, biko nu, knowing that the word "professor" in Nigeria is not the same thing as that one in the US o??
 
Moving on to the more pertinent issue.......the ASUU affiliation.
 
If Jega was President of ASUU from 1988 to 1994, and Iwu was professor at UNN from 1984-1993, then unless Iwu held office in ASUU ONLY from 1984-1988 (early in his university career, which is unlikely), then indeed they must have held different national offices in the same period.
 
Now the INEC website states that:
 
QUOTE
 
He has served as branch Secretary (UNN) and National Vice-Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
 
UNQUOTE
 
There are no dates here - but also the national office is "Vice-President", not "Vice-Chairman."  For example, the current officers are :
 
QUOTE
 
Prof Ukachukwu A.Awuzie,fnia-President(IMSU),
Dr. Nasir F. Isa-Vice President(BUK),
Mr. Sikiru Eniola-Financial Secretary(UNAD)
Dr.(Mrs) Regina Ode-Treasurer(BSU),
Dr. Rotgak Illiya Gofwen-Investment Secretary (UNIJOS),
Dr Daniel Gungula-Internal Auditor(FUT,Yola),
Dr(Barrrister) I.N.E Worugji-Legal  Adviser(UNICAL).
Dr. Abdullahi Sule_Kano -IPP (UDUS
UNQUOTE
 
where as an aside it is significant that the PRESENT Vice-President actually comes from VC. Prof. Attahiru Jega's BUK! 
 
There is no problem with being local ASUU secretary.  But what was Iwu "National Vice-Chairman" of?  Was it of National ASUU, or was there a national task-force set up in which he was Vice-Chairman, and which is now being played up as a "National Vice-Chairman to President Attahiru Jega?"
 
That is the conundrum, wrapped up in a mystery, and delivered as an enigma that needs to be solved, all in an effort to reduce any odiums.
 
And there you have it.
 
 
 
 
Bolaji Aluko

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 10:32 AM, Okwy Okeke <okwud...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
 
Maurice Iwu had left UNN for the U.S. by 1989, reason his first son stayed with Dr. Ugochukwu Uba when he wrote his SSCE O'level examination in Oct/Nov 1989, however, Iwu continued to play an active role in ASUU, but I doubt if in an official capacity.
 
It was Iwu that paid some Lagos attorneys, I believe Falana among others to defend the UNN professors that clashed with Gomwalk during the later's stint as sole-ad of UNN in the mid-90s, Iwu also provided financial relief to many of them at his cost around the same time Jega was ASUU national president (reason many are surprised at what became of the man many looked up to back then). I recall his stock rose when he got these professors out on bail when no one dared come close in those dark days of the mid-90s when Gomwalk ran UNN like some military barrack, he subsequently flew them to the U.S. via "NADECO route," today, one is a professor at Princeton, another at a smaller college in upstate New York, etc, yes, same Maurice Iwu that gave us 2007 elections result!
 
Jega could not have been ASUU president in the 80s, he was in the 90s. He led the ASUU strike of the mid-90s that among other things landed him on the cover of Newswatch magazine as man of the year 1994 or 1995, Newswatch archives can resolve that pretty easily.
 
 
 
---Though on the sign it is written: 'Don't pluck these blossoms' -- it is useless against the wind, which cannot read."

--- On Thu, 10/6/10, Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com>
Subject: NIDOA | Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Iwu Was Never Deputy to Jega
To: usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Cc: NI...@yahoogroups.com, "NaijaPolitics e-Group" <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com>, "OmoOdua" <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>, "ekiti ekitigroups" <ekiti...@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, 10 June, 2010, 7:17

 
 
Nkolika:
 
Although many pieces of information about Iwu still need to be verified, this much we know:
 
 
QUOTE
 
"[Maurice Iwu]  was formally a Professor of Pharmacognosy at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1984-1993). ......He has served as branch Secretary (UNN) and National Vice-Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. "
 
UNQUOTE
 
We know the period that Iwu taught at UNN, but not the ACTUAL dates in which he served ASUU in  various capacities either at the local or national branches.
 
But know that Prof. Attahiru Jega was ASUU Chairman from 1984-1988.
 
One doubts if Iwu JOINED the university in 1984, and the same year became active at ASUU.
 
So abeg, who knows the correct dates before this particular dragon develops legs?
 
 
 
Bolaji Aluko

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 6:55 AM, Nkolika Ebele <nkolikae@yahoo. com> wrote:
Be rest assured that the information that IWU was Jega's deputy as ASUU president  or even consultant to INEC is false.  People should stop spreading false rumours. Iwu was once publicity secretary of ASUU at UNN, not even under Jega's national leadership. Please cross check your facts before posting them for wider consumption. Jega is a man of integrity until proven otherwise.
Nkolika
Unizik Awka


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laolu akande

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Jun 10, 2010, 11:33:59 PM6/10/10
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Prof:
 
Yes, the list seems accurate as far as I can tell.
 
And I say this because I was a reporter with The Guardian during the 1992 ASUU strike and I know for a fact that Dr. Olukunle, then a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies, was Jega's deputy and ASUU's Vice President-they were both quite very close. They were also very principled, relentless and determined to fight
 
We covered that particular strike extensively, and ASUU actually made me into some kind of an "associate member" allowing very deep access to their activities, even when it was banned.
 
So I know that Jega, who came to UI-Ibadan, from time to time, as it was ASUU's headquarters then, had only one active deputy, and it was not Iwu! (I was based in Ibadan too, from where I was covering the strike) 
 
By the way, it was Obasanjo who ultimately settled that strike when he intervened and brought IBB to negotiate with the teachers then. It was the first time a civil society group trounced the IBB regime, for ASUU got a big chunk of what it asked for!
 
Laolu Akande
Then Guardian's Correspondent in Ibadan during the 1992 ASUU strike

Nkolika Ebele

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Jun 11, 2010, 12:52:20 AM6/11/10
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com
Prof Aluko
Thank you for your effort to dig out the truth on this matter, however I believe this present debate is not very useful to Nigeria. The debate should be on what INEC under Jega can do to conduct a credible election. What are the international best practices that can help INEC conduct a credible election in Nigeria.  I believe in your ability to swing the debate to something more useful to us and INEC. Iwu is gone , Jega will soon take over, how do we help him through useful suggestions to succeed?
Nkolika Unizik Awka


--- On Thu, 6/10/10, Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Mobolaji ALUKO <alu...@gmail.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - On the Most Complete Information on ASUU Presidency So Far { - Re: NIDOA | Iwu Vs Jega
To: "Yinka Banwo" <yob...@yahoo.co.uk>
Cc: "USAAfrica Dialogue" <USAAfric...@googlegroups.com>, "NaijaPolitics e-Group" <NaijaP...@yahoogroups.com>, "NIDOA" <NI...@yahoogroups.com>, "ekiti ekitigroups" <ekiti...@yahoogroups.com>, "OmoOdua" <Omo...@yahoogroups.com>

Mobolaji ALUKO

unread,
Jun 11, 2010, 8:55:17 AM6/11/10
to usaafric...@googlegroups.com, laolu akande, nkol...@yahoo.com
 
 
 
Laolu:
 
Thanks, but the very latest information that I have from very reliable source indicates that Iwu was indeed Vice-President to Jega via an election at ASUU's NDC in Nsukka in 1988, but he checked out of Nigeria during the 1988-1990 ban on ASUU,  only to be replaced by Olukunle as VP when the ban was lifted.
 
Could you re-confirm, as well as whether the ban was lifted in 1990 or 1991?
 
 
Nkolika:
 
I hear you: Prof. Jega needs all the help he can get to succeed from all Nigerians, and PARTICULALRY from the university community, particularly from ASUU members and alums,  so that "professors" and ASUU do not become curse-words! :-
 
But I find it very terrible that so much uncertainty pervades information that is just 20-30 years old - since 1980 to date -  information that should be down pat on ASUU's website, etc.
 
So while the initial interest was in Iwu's relationship with Jega, I am also now intrigued by the lack of accuracy of information which appears to dog Nigeria.
 
I trust that you understand.  As Sherlock Holmes always says, the case is not closed until it is solved...and we are getting close.
 

Bolaji Aluko

 

UPDATED.....

Presidents and Vice-Presidents of ASUU

Dr. Biodun Jeyifo (OAU Ife) ---  President (1980-82)
Dr Mahmud Tukur (ABU Zaria)   ---Vice President


 
Dr. Mahmud Tukur (ABU Zaria)  1982-86
Dr. Festus Iyayi (UNIBEN) -- Vice President.
 
Dr. Festus Iyayi  (UNIBEN)  1986-88
Dr. Attahiru Jega (BUK) ---Vice President..
 
Dr. Attahiru Jega (BUK)  1988-1994

Dr. Maurice Iwu (UNN) -- Vice President 1988-1990 (period of ASUU ban)
Dr. Sola Olukunle  ( U.Ibadan)-- Vice President (1990-1994)


 
Dr. Assissi Asobie (UNN) 1994-2000
Dr. Tanimu Abubakar (ABU)-- Vice President.
 
Dr. Dipo Fashina (OAU) 2000-2004
Dr. Sule Kano (UNISOK)-- Vice President.
 
Dr. Sule Kano (UNISOK) 2004-2008
Dr. Offiong (UNICAL) -- Vice President (2004-2006)
Dr. Ogbam Nyam(UNN)  --- Vice President (2006-2008)
 
Prof. Ukachukwu Awuzie (IMSU) 2008-Present
Dr. Nassir Fagge (BUK) --- Vice President

 
 
--------------
 
 
Prof Aluko
Thank you for your effort to dig out the truth on this matter, however I believe this present debate is not very useful to Nigeria. The debate should be on what INEC under Jega can do to conduct a credible election. What are the international best practices that can help INEC conduct a credible election in Nigeria.  I believe in your ability to swing the debate to something more useful to us and INEC. Iwu is gone , Jega will soon take over, how do we help him through useful suggestions to succeed?
Nkolika Unizik Awka


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