2006年VOA标准英语-University Staff to Strike in Nigeria

By Franz Wild
Abidjan
20 April 2006

The Nigerian university staff union says its members' working conditions have dropped below acceptable levels, and the government is interfering¹ in academic affairs unnecessarily.  The union is planning a three day strike.

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Student in Nigerian classroom   
  

Academic staff at universities around Nigeria say they will go on a warning strike next week.

The Academic Staff of Universities Union, the ACSU, says the educational sector² in Nigeria has seen far too little money during recent years.  And that applies most directly to universities.

The union also says the government has been interfering in academics.

Union President Suleikano Abdulayi says Nigerian universities are in a terrible state of decline.

"From 1999 to today, the government has not given anything above 6.7 percent of the national budget to education," he said.  "Because of that, the universities are worst hit under the circumstances.  On the other hand, they are telling us, they are trying to build state of the art universities in Nigeria, when actually the universities in Nigeria are sinking."

The union says it had an agreement with the government, under which, the government guaranteed to allocate³ sufficient funds to universities.  The union calls this a right-to-work agreement.

Abdulayi says the government has broken this agreement by not making the necessary funds available.

"Our right to work means we should have good conditions to work in," he added.  "Everybody knows that Nigerian universities are in shambles⁴.  The government is not allocating⁵ adequate resources to them.  In fact, because of that, you have no personal equipment, you have overcrowded lecture halls, you have student hostels⁶ in which 12 people stay in a room meant for two people, and these conditions are not suitable for learning."

The union says the strike will also serve as a protest on a second issue, that of political autonomy.  The union says universities, and their staff, are protected by law, which the government should respect.  They say, the government has previously⁷ arrested several professors who were striking, and this sort of interference cannot continue. 

Abdulayi says the strike is intended to show the government that union members will stand their ground.

"There is interference from the government here," he said.  "We want the universities to be autonomous⁸ on the basis of their laws and statutes⁹.  We do not want anybody in the bureaucracy or the state interfering directly in illegal ways.  And, of course, our colleagues who suffered after a previous strike need to be given justice, too."

Nobody representing the government was available for comment.

1 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。

2 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

3 allocate   

vt.分配，分派；把…拨给；把…划归

参考例句：

• You must allocate the money carefully.你们必须谨慎地分配钱。
• They will allocate fund for housing.他们将拨出经费建房。

4 shambles   

n.混乱之处；废墟

参考例句：

• My room is a shambles.我房间里乱七八糟。
• The fighting reduced the city to a shambles.这场战斗使这座城市成了一片废墟。

5 allocating   

分配，分派( allocate的现在分词 )； 把…拨给

参考例句：

• Administrative practice generally follows the judicial model in allocating burdens of proof. 在分配举证责任方面，行政实践通常遵循司法模式。
• A cyclical multiplexing technique, allocating resources in fixed-time slices. 以固定的时间片分配资源的循环复用技术。

6 hostels   

n.旅舍，招待所( hostel的名词复数 )；青年宿舍

参考例句：

• The students were protesting at overcrowding in the university hostels. 学生们在抗议大学宿舍过于拥挤。 来自辞典例句
• Are there any cheap hostels in Nanjing for one person? 南京有没有便宜的旅店可以一个人住？ 来自互联网

7 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

8 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

9 statutes   

成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程

参考例句：

• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Each agency is also restricted by the particular statutes governing its activities. 各个机构的行为也受具体法令限制。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法