South-East varsity crisis: NUC threatens to apply sanction if...

South-East varsity crisis: NUC threatens to apply sanction if...

| Print | E-mail

Written by Clement Idoko, Abuja Friday, 05 November 2010

THE National Universities Commission (NUC) has threatened to use its sledge hammer to apply full sanction should the proprietors of the five South-East state-owned universities fail to resolve their trade dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in the coming days.
But the Rivers State deputy governor, Mr Tele Ikuru, has described the lecturers of the state’s University of Science and Technology as ingrates and attributed the prolonged strike action to sheer greed.
Executive Secretary of the Commission, Professor Julius Okojie, spoke with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday shortly after he presented letter of recognition of Rivers State University of Education, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, to the state governor, Mr. Chibuike Amaechi, represented by his deputy, Mr Ikuru.
Okojie, who spoke with newsmen on the crisis rocking the five state-owned universities following the expiration on Thursday of the two-week ultimatum for the parties to resolve their differences in order to allow the students go back to the classrooms, said if the stand off persisted, the commission would not hesitate to apply appropriate sanction.
Okojie said the commission decided to maintain benevolent position by not hurriedly sanctioning institutions because NUC was interested more in achieving a result that would be lasting and enduring.
He disclosed that he had personally waded into the crisis by having talks with the chairman of ASUU, adding that efforts were being made also to speak with the state governors on how to resolve the logjam amicably.