The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Sunday said that the signing and implementation of a renegotiated 2009 agreement will end the over five months strike.
The Union maintained that her members have sacrificed so much for their own welfare lamenting that the Federal Government owes their members over 9 years of allowances.
ASUU Chairman, University of Ibadan, Professor Ayo Akinwole stated this in Ibadan, adding that Nigerians should not see the strike as an ASUU thing but as a fight, all Nigerians must own to have a future of quality education for their children.
He said that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has displayed the capacity to abuse trust as the Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Action signed with the government were not honoured.
According to Akinwole, Nigeria is in the hands of incompetent people due to the collective negligence of Nigerians adding that “Until we rise above sentiments to get responsible and responsive people who will be accountable to Nigerians into public offices the cycles of strikes will not end in Nigeria.”
Professor Akinwole stated that the federal government led by President Mohammadu Buhari is largely uncoordinated where the president gives orders and his media aide denied he gave such orders.
Akinwole reminded Nigerians that although the Federal Government had stopped the salaries of their members for five months, the lecturers are resolved to fight to victory over the parasitic ruling class.
He called on Nigerians to join the struggle to get money from the government to revitalise public-funded universities to give children of the Nigerian masses hope of governing their country adding that unless that is done, the children of the ruling class trained in foreign universities will return to take over from their wicked parents and continue to enslave Nigerians.
While saying the Union will actively participate in the two days of protest being organised by NLC and other Labour unions in the country, Professor Akinwole stated that it is sad that President Buhari’s government which prides itself on fighting corruption will be frustrating the use of the homegrown solution for IPPIS that has been discredited by audit report of 2019.
The ASUU leader stated that members of the Union are also affected by the strike not only in terms of finances but their education as many of them are doing their doctoral degrees in public universities adding that many will also be affected as their promotion will also be delayed and “my own children are at home with me too.”
“We got here by collective negligence of electing incompetent people into public offices. The fight for quality education for the children of the masses has become a class war among the economic elite, the working class and the ruling class until we rise up and demand accountability from those in office to do what is in the best interest of the majority, cycle of strikes and underdevelopment will not stop.
“Nigerians continue to elect people who don’t care about them. We worship those who have money than those with the right virtues and have the interest of society at heart. Our renegotiation ought to have ended by 2012 but here we are in 2022 and yet the government is playing games with us. We are asking for a renegotiation of existing agreements that will position our members as human beings working in a decent place.
“We are asking for the Revitalization of Public Universities through appropriate funding. We are saying we have a better homegrown alternative to the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), we are saying check the proliferation of Universities that you cannot fund and we are saying Nigerians deserve to be ranked among the top 100 in the world if our leaders invest in education. We should be developing our own solutions not depending on others. Sadly we have an uncoordinated Presidency and cabinet working at Cross purposes. This strike is not about ASUU, It is about the future of the Nigerian children.”
