No Going Back On Decision, ASUU Speaks On Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that it will continue the ongoing strike as long as the Federal Government fails to honour the 2009 agreement, which is the subject of dispute.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osedeke made this known on Wednesday in Abuja.

He said the union resorted to such a decision due to the failure of their efforts to reach an agreement with the Federal Government.

“Let me give you an example, because this is where we are getting it wrong, when the airline operators said they were going to stop the flights, the Senate and House of Representatives quickly stepped in.

“This is because they are affected; they quickly rushed in and addressed the problem, why would they not resolve that of the education sector that is affecting the children of the poor and the ordinary people.

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“If the government is willing to resolve the issues affecting the Nigerians, then there would be no need to go on strike.

‘“The problem is the will of the government to resolve issues,” he said.

The association had on Monday extended the ongoing strike which started on Feb. 14 by another 12 weeks.

The striking lecturers’ demands include, funding of the revitalisation of public universities, Earned Academic Allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) and promotion arrears.

Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System.

He lamented that the FG has refused to meet their demands.

“All the issues that made us go on strike are still there; that is the revitalisation fund, that is putting more money into universities and revitalising the infrastructure in the universities.

“There is also the issue of our mode of payments in the universities. There is no university in the world where lecturers are paid salaries from the Accountant General’s Office.

“We have challenged them to provide one, if universities are a universal body, why are they doing things differently?

“We talk of negotiation of agreements, proliferation of universities, among others, so there are lots of issues that they have not resolved,” he said.

The ASUU president also said that the government had also refused to accept UTAS that he said had been tested and passed with a score of 99.3 per cent.

Osedeke urged the Federal Government to do the needful in order for students to return to schools.