The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed displeasure that two years after its former president, Professor Festus Iyayi was killed by a government convoy in Kogi State, the federal government is yet to fully implement the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement.
Professor Festus Iyayi, a former ASUU president, was killed in a convoy of Kogi State Governor Idris Wada while on his way to an emergency ASUU meeting to suspend the six-month old strike in 2013.
The Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Professor Segun Ajiboye, in a statement titled; “Iyayi must not die in vain”, said it was sad that since 2013 when ASUU suspended the strike, universities were yet to get any intervention fund apart from the N200billion released in 2013 from the promised N1.3trillion, adding that nothing was received in 2014 and 2015.
ASUU therefore called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the new Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to pay the outstanding intervention funds (N1.3trillion), earned academic allowances and commence renegotiation of the agreement.
Ajiboye who was part of an enlarged congress held in honour of Iyayi at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, lamented that infrastructure in Nigerian universities remained decrepit with a working environment unfit to impart knowledge.
He added that science students face hardship conducting research as laboratories are outdated and poorly equipped.
Ajiboye said academic staff in Nigerian universities were getting restive because of the failure of government to attend fully to the agreements, adding that it was high time the government of President Buhari invested in education for a secure future.
ASUU noted that heroic leaders around the world invested in education and ensured it was available for the children of the masses to have access to it, adding that the future remains bleak until adequate investment is committed to education.
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