The Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC, has tackled the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria, ASUU, regarding the ministerial appointment of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Ibrahim Ali Pantami.
MURIC’s Director, Ishaq Akintola, said ASUU was yet to learn its lessons, stressing that the body’s stance on Pantami’s professorship was the joke of the century.
ASUU had yesterday declared Pantami’s Professorship as ‘illegal.’
The academic body had vowed to sanction its members in the Federal University of Technology Owerri, FUTO, and the University’s Vice-Chancellor over the minister’s appointment.
National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said it is impossible to be a Minister and a lecturer at the same time.
Osodeke had said the minister’s promotion would encourage illegality.
The union gave Pantami the option of quitting his job as a Minister, saying he is currently not qualified to be treated as a professor.
Osodeke had disclosed this during a press conference in Lagos yesterday.
Frowning at ASUU’s stance, MURIC said the academic body was yet to learn its lesson.
The Islamic organization said ASUU lacked the “locus standi” to declare an appointment and promotion ratified by the university’s council illegal.
In a statement he signed, Akintola said: “The Academic Staff Union of Universities yesterday declared Professor Pantami’s professorial appointment as illegal. It is the joke of the century.
“It is trespass. ASUU national should know its limits. Again, is there any section of the ASUU constitution that empowers it to override appointments made by universities? This is an affront. No more, no less.”
The Islamic organization wondered when ASUU began to wade into procedures for “promotion or appointment of the academia in any Nigerian university?”
“Is ASUU dancing to the gallery by championing the hate campaign of a section of the country? But will ASUU be able to carry all its branches along? For instance, will Northern universities see things the way ASUU national sees them? ASUU national will divide this body again if it continues this way. Remember that many other universities have formed other lecturers’ associations because of bullying from the centre.
“One expects ASUU national to have learnt its lesson by now. There is a world of difference between fighting the collective cause of all members and fighting your own member or fighting a particular branch. This is a fight you cannot win. What came out of the conflict between ASUU national and its UnIlorin branch? Who blinked first? Ilorin dealt with ASUU national and got away with it.
“It is quite amusing that ASUU national threatened to sanction those who participated in the process that led to what ASUU called ‘illegal’ appointment. It is an empty threat. Unions are not held together by the force of threats. They are kept alive by good leadership, tolerance and sacrifice.
“Besides, Professor Pantami’s work at FUTO is a voluntary work that attracts no payment and this has a place in the rules of the civil service. Neither is the minister doing it without the knowledge and approval of Mr. President,” MURIC added.
(Daily Post)
