Lawrence Nwimo, Awka
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH) chapter of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), has accused Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU-NAU chapter Chairman, Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh, of spreading falsehood in his comments relating to the 2022 ASUU strike in the institution.
The remark came on the heels of a scathing attack by ASUU-NAU leadership against the minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, following his move to facilitate the payment of withheld salaries of about 204 lecturers at the institution.
ASUU-NAU Chairperson, Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh, at a press briefing, Thursday, had expressed displeasure at the move he described as unequal treatment of the staff of the institution. According to him, the entirety of UNIZIK ASUU members participated in the Union’s 2022 national strike, hence, deserves equal treatment.
Ufoaroh had reported that the Minister’s claim that ASUU members in the faculties of Basic Medical Sciences, Basic Clinical Sciences and Medicine did not partake in the 2022 ASUU national strike was false, and noted that the entire institution was shut down and bereft of any academic activity during the eight months of industrial action.
But a statement signed by MDCAN NAUTH chairman, C. N. Ilokanuno, and Secretary, V. I. Modekwe, has faulted the attack on the minister. It also denied claims that the institution was entirely shut down during the strike period.
The body which said its activities were documented, stressed that even the UNIZIK ASUU chairperson, Ufoaroh, was aware of the three faculty’s academic activities going on during the period of the strike.
It read partly: “The Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) NAUTH Chapter has watched with amusement the recent unwarranted attack on the person of the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige.
“It was the lecturers of the three faculties of the Medical School of NAU that applied to the FG to be paid our 2022 withheld (and earned) salaries with evidences of lecture and academic activities during the strike. These documented evidences are available and the ASUU chairperson is aware of them, as he was a source of at least one of those evidences.
“Academic activities took place at our medical school during the strike. ASUU Chairperson was aware as he sent his team to disrupt some of them. He sent threat messages on some occasions. He made threat calls on other occasions to our deans and lecturers.
“We conducted two (2) professional examinations during the strike. We graduated and held an induction ceremony during the strike. We held classroom lectures and active teachings at the clinics, wards, theatres, and emergency rooms. Tutorials took place. Our students signed an undertaking to be taught. Comrade Ufoaroh and ASUU members know that medical training takes place majorly at the clinical areas more than the classrooms.
“In fact we conducted another two (2) professional examinations immediately after the strike. This would not have been possible if the medical school was shut down as Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh alleged.
“Comrade Ufoaroh said that the university was shut down, but mischievously failed to point out that the faculties of basic clinical sciences and medicine are housed at the teaching hospital (NAUTH), which obviously cannot be closed by the Vice-Chancellor or Senate of the university.
“The faculty boards of the medical school held several meetings during the strike. And in one of the meetings, resolved to go on with academic activities without necessarily sabotaging ASUU effort. This is because the training of medical doctors do not follow same pattern as other professions. We cannot rush our students. We do not have vacations that we can use to cover up for the strike periods. We have not recovered from the 2020 strike (while other faculties and departments have). Again we are facing a man-power crisis in the medical field in Nigeria.
“Comrade Ufoaroh was aware of these meetings, the outcome and these arguments, hence his threats through text messages and calls, those times. How does one conceive and explain the idea that medical students should be away from training for a straight eight (8) months, and remain the same?
“Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh has thus become the first ASUU NAU Chairperson who insists that the medical school must be completely shut down during ASUU strike.
“We had done these for altruistic reasons. It was the reason we did not apply to have our salaries paid as and when due during the strike, which some other university medical schools did. We also refrained immediately after the strike as a way to support ASUU (of which we are members and to give her the chance to retrieve the salaries of her members).”
Ilokanuno, in the statement entitled: “RE: ASUU NAU Chairperson lack of tact and Mischievous release,” criticized Ufoaroh’s outbursts, noting that such has been responsible for the continued drawback in the ASUU negotiation with the FG.
He regretted that ASUU which ought to have stood by them is the one fighting against their welfare and threatened to withdraw its membership of the Union, if the current war against payment of their withheld salaries persists in the institution.
