ASUU Slams David Mark Over Onosode Comments, Asks Him To Make His Salary Public

University of Ibadan chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has asked the Senate President, David Mark to apologise to the leader of Government negotiation with ASUU, Deacon Gamaliel Onosode over alleged disparaging comments. This formed part of the resolutions of the union at the end of a congress in the institution, weekend, signed by the chairman of the ASUU at the university, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye.

According to him, instead of the senator condemning the leader of the government delegation in 2009, the elder statesman “deserved respect as a man of proven integrity, and impeccable character,” because of his pedigree.

While advising the Senate to be concerned with the plight of Nigerian masses and teach youths the sanctity of obeying agreements, the union recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan as the then Vice President had instructed the government team to sign the agreement.

Following discussion on the details of the agreement on the floor of the Senate, Mark was quoted to have said: “For those who negotiated on behalf of the Federal Government with ASUU in October 2009, the facts made available to us today by the chairman of the Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije, showed that they are people who do not know their right from their left and, in the process, put the Federal Government into the problem it is facing today, because when the agreements were read out, I thought they were mere proposals, only for Chukwumerije to confirm that they signed the largely unimplementable agreements characterised by payment of  all manner of allowances.”

The union alleged that Senate President acted ignorantly on the true position of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement even as a sitting Senate President at the time.

“The vituperation of the Senate President shows the character of those leading us as unpatriotic and foreign to happenings within the country”.

The union further challenged the senate president to publish his salaries and allowances to Nigerians.

“The Congress considered the personality of Deacon Gamaliel Onosode, an alumnus of the University College Ibadan, who has served as the Chairman of Governing councils of UI and UNILAG, a great successful businessman who has served the country in various intervention capacities. The congress condemns these disparaging comments and demands that the Senate President apologises to this elder statesman.

“Can we actually trust these characters to midwife any intervention with a bias and myopic construction myth makes right? Where else in the world are senators earning bogus allowances as we have in the National Assembly? Salaries of University lecturers have been by NUC, we challenge the Revenue Allocation, Mobilisation and Fiscal commission to publish salaries and allowance of the senate president David Mark for Nigerians to see how patriotic he is to the true state of the economy,” the UI chapter of the union said.