We’ll not succumb to blackmail, BSU ASUU tells Suswam •As Ajasin varsity gets set to pull out of strike

Barely 48 hours after the Benue State governor, Dr Gabriel Suswam, ordered the Benue State University (BSU) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to resume work on October 2, 2013, the striking lecturers have waved the order aside, saying they will not succumb to blackmail.
The governor had directed the management of the state university to evoke the “no work, no pay rule,” on the lecturers if they failed to pull out of what he described as “sympathy strike’’ and resume work as from October.
But the chairman of BSU ASUU, Dr David Ukooh, who spoke to newsmen yesterday after the union’s congress said his members would not succumb to any form of blackmail, threat or intimidation.
 Ukooh said the governor’s comment was “mere political propaganda’’ intended to blackmail the lecturers, adding that BSU ASUU executive lacked the power to suspend the strike.
“The  strike embarked upon by BSU ASUU is a national strike and not a local one. The branch exco has no power to suspend the strike. We are a union and we have  modalities which has to be followed logically. The NEC of ASUU called this strike and it is only when they ask us to call off the strike that we can do so.”
“This is not the first time ASUU will go on strike. If the governor insists on no work, no pay, we are not worried, we will meet our work where we left it. But when we resume, we will also insist on no pay, no work. The governor’s statement is borne out of ignorance,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of the Ondo State-owned Adekunle Ajasin University (AAUA), Akungba-Akoko, Professor Olufemi Mimiko, has said that the university will soon recall its students and lecturers back on campus if the three-month-old strike by ASUU is not called off by the end of September.
Mimiko disclosed the plan of the university during an interview with the Nigerian Tribune. He said the protracted strike had affected the activities of the institution, which had unbroken and stable academic calendar in the last four years.
“We had unbroken four-year academic calendar before the strike began.  The strike has affected our programmes.  It is not in the interest of our students.
“We hope ASUU will call off the strike soon. If not, we are considering taking a measure to bring our students back on campus. Precisely, if by the end of September, the strike is not called off nationally, we will begin the process of calling off the strike locally,” he said.
“We are consulting with our lecturers. Ours  is a state university and the case is different. We don’t have any subsisting agreement with the ASUU. It is the Federal Government that has issues with the ASUU.
“In  the first instance, our own lecturers are not even expected to go on strike  along with the ASUU of the Federal Government-owned  institutions. They are not employees of the Federal Government.

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