“Those Universities In Ghana Are Secondary Schools In Nigeria” – Unical ASUU Chair

Tony Eyang, Chairman, University of Calabar, Unical, chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, says most of the universities in Ghana that Nigerians hurriedly send their children to can only compete with secondary schools in Nigeria and not any of the federal or state universities in Nigeria. He maintains too that if successive governments in Nigeria had invested resources in physical and human development in her universities, most parents in the country would have had no need to send their children to universities in Ghana.

Eyang who spoke in Calabar, as guest on “The Public View”, the news and current affairs programme on local radio station, HIT 95.9 FM, was also sad that the “Federal Government has refused to honour several agreements reached with ASUU. How do you explain a situation where we work full-time and earn only 90% of our salaries. Are the senators and House of Reps members being paid only a fraction of their salaries? It is only in Nigeria that this kind of very unfair treatment is reserved for lecturers”, he submitted.

A female caller who said she was calling from Calabar South, accused ASUU of being selfish with their demands and attendant threat to embark on a strike action. She submitted that ASUU should understand that these are indeed tough economic times and that shutting down public universities will remove the human face from ASUU. Eyang quickly responded by saying those who are attempting to brand ASUU’s actions as selfish do not understand that the interest of the students and their respective universities are at the centre of ASUU’s agenda. “We are presently approaching the end of the one week warning strike action…we will engage government again and if in the end government fails to deliver, I can assure you that we will be in for a very long holiday for us lecturers and our students”.