When State House correspondents were trekking the about 500 metres distance from their base, the Council Chamber Briefing Room, to the Conference Room of the First Lady’s Office inside the Villa under the scorching sun on Monday, nothing gave them an inkling that they would end up passing the night outside like destitute.
Their destination was the venue of a meeting between President Goodluck Jonathan and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities aimed at resolving issues that led to the union’s current industrial action.
By the time we arrived at the venue, members of the union’s delegation were already seated. ASUU President, Dr. Nasir Faggae, led the union team which included past presidents such as Prof. Abdulahi Sule-Kano, Prof. Dipo Fashina and Prof. Festus Iyayi. Other members of the delegation were Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, Prof. Victor Osodeke, Prof. Suleiman Abdul, Dr. Victor Igbum and Mr. Michael Odunmoraye.
Their countenance was not mistakable. They looked combative. It seemed they had made up their mind ahead of the meeting. It appeared to be fight to the finish for them.
This was further confirmed when the union leaders rejected the snacks provided for them before the arrival of the President. I do not know why they decided to take after the biblical Daniel who made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank. I won’t know whether it was for fear of being poisoned or being blackmailed.
Apart from turning back the stewards who wanted to serve them snacks and juice, the university teachers also avoided the kolanuts, bitter kola, sweets and water that were already on their table before their arrival like a plague.
The Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, who noticed the development asked Faggae why he and his members refused to eat but the union leader replied that they were fasting. When the minister faulted his fasting claim, Faggae again replied, “We don’t want to eat so that we can save government money for the implementation of the agreement.”
The meeting started at about 2.40pm with the arrival of the President and his retinue of aides that included Vice President Namadi Sambo; Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim; and Minister of Labour, Emeka Wogu, among others.
As customary with meetings of this nature, journalists were asked to leave immediately after the President exchanged handshakes with all members of the delegation and settled down for business. That was however not after he had made it clear to the striking teachers that the issue must be resolved in that meeting.
It is no longer news that the meeting did not end until 3.30am on Tuesday. They only observed a short break around 6.15pm to allow participants to stretch their legs and probably make further consultations.
While Jonathan and members of his team retired into one of the ante-rooms inside the venue of the meeting, the union leaders again showed their distrust for government when they held their consultation inside a white bus parked outside the premises. The Toyota Hiace bus marked Lagos BU 190 EPE was the one used to convey them to the venue. The break and consultation session ended at about 6.50pm.
As the meeting dragged, stewards were seen moving another round of refreshment into the venue. Since we had been locked outside, I could not confirm whether the union leaders who would have been famished by that time finally changed their mind and took part in that refreshment.
While the meeting lasted, it was not an exciting experience for the journalists who were left at the mercy of cold outside the venue where they kept vigil. Some resorted to getting a nap on the tiled floor. That was the sacrifice we were ready to pay for the sake of our younger ones who have been shut out of their schools since July.
By the time they emerged from the meeting, Faggae was still looking combative. He answered questions as if journalists were the cause of the strike. He promised to take the President’s message back to his members who would take a final decision on the matter.
As at the time I was writing this, the union had not made any pronouncement on the industrial action. In case the strike had not been called off at the time you are reading this, I will want Faggae and his members to learn from a short story of the tortoise and his father-in-law narrated to me by my late grand-mother.
The story has it that the usually greedy tortoise sneaked into his father-in-law’s farm in the midnight to steal some tubers of yam and was caught red-handed. The father-in-law decided to punish the tortoise by tying him to a tree beside the road. Other villagers who were on their way to their farms in the morning were full of abuse for the tortoise when they were told of what happened.
However, the story changed when the villagers were returning from their farms in the evening and still met the tortoise serving his punishment. They turned the heat on the father-in-law, saying he had been punished enough and should have been left off the hook. The blame was for the tortoise in the morning while the father-in-law got the blame in the evening. I hope ASUU will read in between the lines of this short story and “do the needful,” apologies to the embattled Minister of Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, who has the copyright of that language.
Between compensation and assistance for Boko Haram victims
Journalists left the Villa some minutes after 4am on Tuesday at the end of the ASUU meeting, thinking that they would be spared a few hours to freshen up and rest before returning for the day’s activities.
This was not to be. As early as 10am, members of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North chaired by the Minister of Special Duties, Alhaji Taminu Turaki, had started arriving the Villa. The committee was billed to submit its report that day.
Because of the importance of the committee, no journalist would want to miss that presentation. Jonathan again arrived for the event at about 11am. Politicians don’t sleep, so also are journalists reporting their activities.
What I found interesting (or do I say confusing?) was when the President declared that his government would not compensate victims of violence being orchestrated by Boko Haram but will assist them. I started wondering whether there is any major difference between “compensation” and “assistance.”
“Government is not going to compensate. It is not an issue of compensation but how do we assist people who have suffered to get back to business one way or the other? Government will look into this and other recommendations in your report and see that the right decisions are taken,” he said.
Either he compensates or he assists victims, the point remains that something ( I think cash) will go their way. All na grammar, a friend of mine will say.
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