Hold Nigerian Govt accountable if we go on strike – ASUU

By Derrick Bangura

Nigeria’s Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has voiced concern with the federal government’s refusal to honor agreements reached freely with the union in December 2020, stating Nigerians should hold the government accountable if the union goes on strike again.

Prof. Adelaja Odukoya, the union’s Lagos State Zonal Coordinator, briefed journalists on Tuesday, urging the federal government to review the document of the agreement struck with the union, warning that failure to do so could lead ASUU to go on strike again.

The agreements according to the union included the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 ASUU/ FGN agreement, approval of the deployment of UTAS as a payment platform, as well as funding of state universities yet to get the desired attention from owner government and visitors to those universities.

According to him, “they (government) should let us know if they have any problem on the agreement signed and if there are issues, we will sit down on the round table and resolve the issues. As we speak, the federal government has adamantly done nothing to ensure that the renegotiation agreement is signed and implemented.

“We are perplexed that the states and federal government are not responding to our consistent appeal or listening to bring about genuine transformation by highly motivated human capital in the education sector for our university system.

“Embarking on strike is not in our character nor is it in our nature, however, our union should not be pushed to the wall, we only go on strike as a last resort. We are in a position where the government is not doing the needful.”

He expressed concern about the neglect of conditions of service of academics saying lecturers have made sacrifices over the years than any other segment of the society to ensure that universities in the country were globally competitive, “but despite that, they are poorly remunerated.”

“We are producing lecturers and manpower for other parts of the world so we must be paid remuneration that are globally competitive. We are calling on all Nigerians to prevail on the federal government to do the needful, “he said.

Emphasizing on the issue of IPPIS, Odukoya alleged that the Accountant General of the federation seemed to have made a business of it, saying that those found culpable in fraudulent practice, should be arrested by the EFCC.

On state and federal university funding, the zonal coordinator stated that politicians are more interested in constructing new institutions as a constituency project than funding existing ones, and that academics are underpaid.

“We demand that this be put to an end. Visit a few of our universities, especially our state universities; they are TETfund universities because the state government has no involvement. They don’t even provide funding for them. Because it is part of our professional and moral responsibilities, our union has continued to raise questions concerning university governance,” the don stated.