The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday downed tools to protest against Governor Rotimi Amaechi role as Visitor of Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST). The lecturers said Amaechi reneged on his promise by reappointing Prof Barineme Fakae as acting vice chancellor, against the recommendation of the university’s governing council, after dissolving the council ‘illegally’. While declaring the one-day warning strike, President of ASUU, Dr Nasir Isa, accused the acting vice chancellor of attacking members of ASUU in the university with armed policemen and irate students, who were in a meeting last week over the crisis. SEBAGEN HENRY NOBOH in a chat with the Acting VC, Prof Barineme Fakae, accused the lecturers of disrespecting an academic general by ‘assembling without his authorisation’. Excerpts
You are being accused by your lecturers of disrupting their union meeting on 15 August 2012 with armed policemen and violent students. For this and some other reasons ASUU is going on a nationwide strike. what is your reaction?
They held a meeting? Did you say a meeting? My dear brother, nobody told me that they were going to hold any meeting. Nobody told me they were holding any meeting. Sincerely speaking, I can’t tell you lie because I am a Christian. I am not just a Christian; I am also a pastor in Apostolic Church.
So does that mean you didn’t distrupt their meeting on the said date?
Nobody told me they were holding any meeting. I said I not informed of any meeting, it’s as simple as that. That’s the truth, and again you can confirm from others. Find out if I was told that there was going to be any meeting, and which kind of meeting where they holding
Granted they were going to hold a meeting, the main thing is, did they tell anybody that they were going to hold a meeting? I said no! Nobody told me they were going to hold a meeting. And so when…..come about meeting, meeting, I don’t understand.
I want to be sure I present your side of the story well…
I am a professor, I am an academic. So I don’t have to be standing on another side. I am also an academic. In fact as a professor, I am really a general already in the so-called army of academics. So any other person who has not probably attained that is supposed to show some respect to a general, or is it because we are academics? So people cannot go about saying things about others without thinking the harm they are doing. Unfortunately, at this profession we don’t have respect st all. It’s unfortunate.
So what you are saying is that ASUU members did not inform you about any meeting. Let’s assume so. But is that why you disrupted the meeting?
They didn’t tell me they were going to hold a meeting
So that was why you disrupted the meeting, right?
The main question is, did I know they were going to hold a meeting? The facility is under somebody’s care, not so?
It was only later they were saying that they invited members from……… but the question is, can there be a convention in your own house and you don’t have an idea?