Continued Shutdown of Universities Distasteful, Says MHWUN

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Medical workers under the auspices of Medical and Health workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has described as disheartening the prolonged closure of public owned universities in the country.

It said no responsible government would close down its public tertiary institutions in this 21st century because of patriotic demands for a better funding of its universities and good welfare for its teaching and non-teaching staff.
“This is shameful,” the union stressed.

In a statement signed by National President of MHWUN, Mr. Biobelemoye Josiah, the union said it stands in solidarity with the university based unions in the ongoing struggle to emancipate and reposition the public tertiary institutions in Nigeria for progressive development.
He noted that the university-based unions had been on strike for more than five months due to the apparent failure of government to sign the re-negotiated 2009 agreement with ASUU, failure to honour the terms reached at the May 2021 memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with ASUU, and habitual failure of government to respect collective bargaining agreements willingly signed with Unions.
“The leadership of Medical and Health Workers’ Union of Nigeria have followed with keen interest the ongoing industrial impasse in the country’s public tertiary institutions, which had led to their closure since 14h February, 2022 and the lethargic response of government in addressing the problem.
“Also in contention is the refusal of government to adopt the home-grown innovative solutions provided by the unions in the payment of university workers’ salaries.

“It is equally disheartening to note that since the unfortunate strike started, government actions and response to such a huge national embarrassment had been more of ‘motion without movement’
“If anything, government response has not gone beyond the watery statement of “we are meeting with the unions…” or
the usual outdated tactics of blackmailing union leaders as in similar situation.
“No responsible government would close down its public tertiary institutions in this 21st century because of patriotic demands for a better funding of its universities and good welfare for its teaching and non-teaching staff,” it said.  
The leadership of the health workers’ union said they were particularly irked that the federal government and the political actors have abandoned the children of the poor masses at home to waste away.

“Instead they are seen dissipating energy and resources that could have been used to resolve the issue to fund political tussle to occupy plum offices that previous occupiers have failed to use for the benefit of the masses.
“We are more worried with the development because the academic future of the citizenry is being disrupted whereas the politicians and top government officials have their children mostly in well-funded and equipped oversea schools or in relatively expensive private schools in Nigeria,” it said.
The union urged the government to implement without further delay all the agreements it had entered with the unions.
It also urged the relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) to ensure that President Mohammadu Buhari’s earlier directive to resolve all outstanding issues with the unions was backed by immediate acceptable action that would end the stalemate.
It condemned the current scarcity of diesel, cooking gas, petrol and aviation fuel and the rising wave of arbitrary prices all over the country.
It said there was no better time to end the madness of petrol importation than now.
MHWUN further expressed support for the decision of the two Labour centres to work actively to enthone good governance in the next general election.