Board Dissolution:  Civil Rights Group Tackles ASUU, Says It Is Running Against The Tide

A Civil Society Organisation, Forum For Good Governance, has accused the Academic Staff Union of University, ASUU, of becoming a clog to the wheel of national development and progress in the educational sector. 

The Organisation made this allegation via a statement issued by its head of Policy and Strategy, Nnameka Osondu in Abuja on Wednesday. 

"ASUU says dissolving governing councils of public universities is a setback. It is confusing. The union needs to explain to Nigerians why it is a setback because obviously the statement indicates that ASUU is running against public opinion. 

"It is very confusing because other concerned stakeholders have applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the courage he has displayed in taking certain far reaching decisions meant to rejig a number of the country’s vital institutions, including tertiary institutions whose Councils he dissolved, except ASUU which sees and has a different agenda. It is obvious ASUU is one of the groups working as a clog in the nation's wheel of development and progress in the education sector. ASUU needs to explain why," Nnaemeka demanded. 

The group wondered why ASUU has not identified the ineptitude and corrupt tendencies displayed by members of some of the councils as setback but instead pointed at correctional decisions as a setback. According to the statement, the contradiction is a sign that ASUU has always been deceiving Nigerians as it claims to be a voice for the underprivileged. 

"A lot of the unsettling crisis in public tertiary institutions may have emanated from decisions taken by some of the governing councils backed by ASUU. 

"As a body of intellectuals should ASUU not have carried out a survey of the values most of the Councils added or projects they attracted to their institutions in the phase of economic hardship. Such findings would have buttressed their unguarded claim of the unjust dissolution of the Councils. Yet ASUU did not point at them as setbacks but instead accused President Tinubu of taking steps to correct them as a setback.

"Something must be wrong somewhere and we demand that ASUU tells Nigerians what they are hiding, Nnaemeka noted. 

Nnaemeka added that the President's decision is in line with extant constitutional provisions which gives him the authority to dissolve the councils. 

Citing section 2A, subsection 1 of schedule 3, Forum For Good Governance pointed out that the President did not act out of order. 

"Section 2A, subsection 1 gives the President the authority to dissolve the councils. That he rightly exercised his authority, could that be ASUU's setback? the group asked rhetorically in the statement.