Members of ASUU-UNN who bore different placards such as
“Government, stop forcing ASUU to embark on strike; government, honour agreements with ASUU; Government, don’t kill
university education in Nigeria; Nigeria lecturers are the least paid in the
globe,” among other inscriptions, urged the Federal Government to renegotiate
the 2009 agreement with the Union.
Addressing UNN Management shortly after the Union’s protest,
the Chairman of ASUU-UNN, Comrade Oyibo Eze, described Nigeria’s government as
hypocritical and wicked, adding that the presidency and members of the National
Assembly keep appropriating common treasuries to themselves for their selfish
interests while allowing the masses to wallow in abject poverty.
He further said that members of the Union had employed both
diplomatic and political means to make the Presidency address their greviances,
regretting that both had failed despite President Bola Tinubu’s promise to end
ASUU strike on assumption of office.
“Every effort to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with federal
government has proved abortive. Also, during the campaign of President Bola
Tinubu, he made it clear that he would end ASUU strike by fulfilling all the
demands of the Union, but immediately he assumed office, he never made efforts
to match his words with action. Immediately he assumed office, we articulated
our grievances and sent to him, we have done that up to three times but we have
not received any response from the government.
“Since he assumed office one year ago, our Union has
employed both political and diplomatic means to make Federal Government address
our grievances, but none yielded any result. When Muhammadu Buhari, was in
office, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila,
promised that our issues would be addressed immediately President Tinubu takes
over, but now, he has not been picking our phone calls. He had been the one
calling our National President, but now, our President calls him, but he won’t
pick his calls,” Comrade Eze explained.
Addressing members of the Union, the Deputy Vice Chancellor
of UNN, Professor Johnson Urama, lauded members of the Union for using
legitimate peaceful protest to register their dissatisfaction with the Federal
Government.
Professor Urama, equally appreciated the intervention of
TETFund, which was the brainchild of ASUU in execution of projects in
universities, expressing optimism that federal government would act fast to
avert the looming ASUU strike which would disrupt academic activities in
tertiary institutions.
The union ended Its last strike, which lasted eight months,
on October 14, 2022, following a ruling by the National Industrial Court and
interventions by religious organizations and Femi Gbajabiamila, the former
Speaker of the House of Representatives and now Chief of Staff to the
President.
However, the administration of former President Muhammadu
Buhari did not pay their salaries for that period, adhering to the ‘no work, no
pay’ policy and insisting on payment through the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System.
When President Bola Tinubu took office, he promised to
address the issue of the withheld salaries. On February 19, 2024, the Federal
Government began paying four months of the withheld salaries to union members.
Despite this, the union remained dissatisfied, demanding full payment for the entire eight months, rejecting the newly-constituted governing councils, and calling on the Federal Government to implement the renegotiated 2009 agreement by the Nimi Briggs committee.