FG pushing us to the wall – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described the continuous delay by government in fulfilling the terms of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) both parties agreed to as tantamount to toying with the future of Nigerian youths.

While addressing newsmen on Tuesday, the Lagos zone of the union said ASUU is being pushed to the wall by the government.

Seven issues formed the core of the last MoA with the government when the union suspended its last strike action.

The issues include funding and revitalisation of public universities; Earned Academic Allowances (EAA); States Universities; Universal Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS); Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System ( IPPIS); Promotion Arrears and Renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement.

Zonal coordinator of ASUU, Comrade Adelaja Odukoya, said the history of past struggles to salvage the public universities has equipped the union to know that until it bites, government will remain unconcerned.

According to him, the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement has been the longest and most protracted, which he said exemplifies the insincerity of the government about the welfare of academics and the development of the Nigerian university system as well as national development.

“Government’s failure to ensure prompt renegotiation of the 2009 agreement has consciously sentenced our members to agonizing poverty, encouraged brain drain and criminally promoted falling standard of education in the country,” he said.

Commenting on UTAS, Odukoya said passing all tests, challenges, roadblocks and inquisitions on its path, the government has refused and failed to deploy UTAS, which has demonstrated most robustly and comprehensively its qualitative superiority to the imperialist inspired, inefficient and corruption-prone IPPIS.

“What is clear to us as a union is that, it is a matter of time, UTAS is the ultimate nemesis of the IPPIS,” he said.

The union urged all well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the government to do the needful.

“If government continues on this retrogressive path of indifference, contemptuous attitude and failure to honour its obligations to our union as contained in our MoA, our union would be left with no other option than to resuscitate our struggle to get the government to live up to its responsibilities,” he said, noting that strike is a patriotic act and the last resort to save the universities arising from the uncaring and irresponsible attitude of the government.