The Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) has urged the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media, Lauretta Onoche, to purge herself the mentality created by the thought that the nation’s resources belong to those in power.
The union insisted that those in power do not possess the power of the piper player and cannot dictate any tune, especially when such preposterous tunes they seek to dictate are at variance with the people’s wish.
Dr Ade Adejumo, Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of the union said this while reacting to a statement credited to President Buhari’s Media Adviser, Onochie where she said that ASUU has no right to object to the government’s attempt to illegally migrate its members to the IPPIS pay platform. Her reason: “he who pays the piper dictates the tune.”
Adejumo, in a statement obtained by National Insight, said “One of the most tragic afflictions that a human person can suffer is chronic lack of shame. Unfortunately, the present Nigerian Administration is peopled by some of such characters plagued by this lamentable hubris. They, rather than adding value to the quality of governance in the land, have become serious liabilities to it, with the quality of statements that emanate from them over serious national issues.’
“Onoche is a sorry example of some of those in this administration, who have adopted ASUU-bashing as an art of impressing their paymaster so that they can keep enjoying their piece of national cake that the political gods have placed on their lips. For her and her ilks, nothing is too shameful for them to say, to keep clinging to the government like the blood-sucking leeches they truly are.”
“For the proper education of Onochie and her co-travellers on this route of ignorance, the Nigerian people, including the academics are the true owners of the resources of the country. Those that find themselves in government are merely holding such resources in trust for the people.”
”Afterall, democracy is not about dictatorship; its about consultation and consensus. To seek to subvert this democratic ethos built on trust is an act of betrayal that only a shameless person like we have in this presidential aid here. It is to such extent that it is the people that should tell those in government how the collective wealth should be dispensed. All the arguments have been made by the union (ASUU) why IPPIS cannot work in the university system not only in Nigeria but anywhere in the civilized world. It is for this that Lauretta Onochie and her ilks in government are advised to immerse themselves in the waters of wisdom, get delivered of their chronic misconception about governance and be rid of their deep affliction of shameless meddling in affairs about they are ill-educated. ASUU has made its position clear on IPPIS, it is a well-reasoned position. There is no going back on this.”
