Muslim media group urges ASUU to call off strike

THE Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria (MMWG) has condemned the lingering crisis between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

It called on ASUU and the Federal Government to shift ground with a view of paving the way for the resolution of the crisis in the interest of the nation.

In a statement signed by its national coordinator, Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullahi, the MMWG said the hard-line posture of ASUU and the government would not help matters.

The group appealed to ASUU to show patriotism by calling off the strike since the government had accepted the new pay platform introduced by the union, i.e. the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), with marginal increase in the salaries of lecturers.

According to the MMWG, negotiations for better pay and fulfillment of other parts of the 2009 agreement between the two entities could continue from the resolution of the ongoing strike.

The group also called on the Federal Government to be magnanimous by waving the no-work-no-pay policy on the ongoing ASUU strike, pointing out that the matter was now delicate and could not be resolved by any hard-line stance.

It pleaded with the government to pay the striking lecturers their outstanding salaries as soon as they resume duty.

The group pointed out that seven-month strike of ASUU was creating economic hardship for some Nigerians and reversing the educational gains already achieved by the government.

Meanwhile, the MMWG has called on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to make serious economic crimes unbailable and abolish plea bargaining in the administration of criminal justice system.

Reflecting on what it called the serious economic crimes being committed in the country, the group stated that as long as all such crimes remained bailable, corruption, economic crimes and insecurity would continue to pervade the nation’s system.

It called on the Federal Government and the Nigerian Law Reforms Commission to set a bar for serious economic crimes, adding that suspects for such crimes should remain in detention until their cases were determined.

“Granting bail for serious economic crimes gives opportunity to suspects to influence judicial process in various ways and to finally set themselves free through such influence,” the group noted.

The group also described plea bargaining as “a provision in our criminal justice system that encourages corruption and economic crimes which allows a suspect to refund certain part of the loot and go home with the balance.”

It said some public officers and government functionaries “swindle the nation and various state governments, believing that the huge amounts stolen would pay them in the long run as plea bargaining  is there for them.”

The group lamented that many criminals had been set free through the plea bargaining process, insisting that no anti-corruption fight could succeed in a country that allows “this questionable law to operate.”