Kano University of Science and Technology: Matters arising
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), KUST Chapter is simply an annexure of the former management. Becoming jittery about losing their seats, they rushed to the media to make a sentimental press release full of emotions and assault on the persons that exercise their civil rights to express their opinions. The ASUU that should […]
Kano University of Science and Technology: Matters arising
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), KUST Chapter is simply an annexure of the former management. Becoming jittery about losing their seats, they rushed to the media to make a sentimental press release full of emotions and assault on the persons that exercise their civil rights to express their opinions. The ASUU that should be apolitical and very logical, this time decided to act like politicians. They went ahead to classify those people as “mischief makers” and wrongly categorized all of them as non members of the union (They don’t even know who are their members or not). Without receiving any official communication from the state government, they went ahead to pronounce the decision of the government out rightly “illegal” without making reference to which law was broken. They also did not care to listen to the other side (the state government) before they made the hasty press release. This is because they already had a predetermined position on the issue. ASUU did not stop there, they went ahead to inspire insubordination to the newly appointed acting VC to the extents of circulating mutilated, incomplete and unofficial document (Report of the Visitation Panel). This made some members of the union (including myself) to become suspicious of the exco and their motives. The new management wrote a letter requesting for an audience with the ASUU members to discuss issues of importance to the students. But the exco are refusing to handle the issue with dispatch and instead made it a subject of lengthy and unnecessary discussions based on hearsays. Now the questions that are begging for answers are: Is ASUU going into partisan politics? Are matters of interest to the students no longer their priorities? Is their loyalty due to the system or to some personalities? Are they going to mortgage the interest of the educational system and the University for some personal and selfish interests? Is ASUU the personal property of some privileged individuals? Is the mission of ASUU to hijack or stop the executive powers of whoever is the Governor as provided by the Law?
I believe the future of KUST and higher education in general will be determined to a larger extent by the conduct of ASUU. And I believe this could only be achieved if the conduct of the exco and members were very professional and devoid of any possibility of political alignment. The ASUU in each chapter should also be a watchdog against the excesses of the managements while protecting the legitimate interest of each and every member without discrimination. The priority of ASUU should be the improvement of education and welfare of its members as well as issues of importance to the educational system but not personalities. The ASUU should also be a model of tolerance of divergent views without victimization or intimidation.
Abdullahi is of the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Environmental and Earth Sciences, Kano University of Science and Technology, Wudil.
