The Academic Staff Union of Universities, (ASUU), Lagos zone, has called on Nigerians to engage the Nigerian government on issues it said are currently threatening the industrial peace in public Universities.
In his speech during a press conference at the University of Lagos, Akoka, on Tuesday, the Coordinator of Lagos zone of ASUU, Adelaja Odukoya, said the governments refusal to listen to the union and address issues it had agreed to address in the 2020 Memorandum of Action, is drawing the line of strike.
ASUU said the union dreads embarking on strike, and that deploys it as a last resort only when all other means must have failed.
Recall that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union had directed its various chapters to set aside a day to sensitise and mobilise Nigerians for its fight of saving the university system from collapsing.
ASUU said the Nigerian government has refused to implement the Memorandum of Action, (MoA), that led to the suspension of its nine-month prolonged strike in 2020.
The Coordinator said the government should be held responsible should ASUU decide to embark on another round of strikes, which he noted could happen in no distant time.
Odukoyas statement reads in part: It becomes very important and germane to address this press conference to sensitise the public and express the concerns of our union about the refusal of the federal government to sign and implement the re-negotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), funding of state universities, non-payment of withheld salaries, checkoff dues and promotion arrears.
One of the lingering issues between the government and the academic staff union as listed by Odukoya is the re-negotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, which he noted ought to have been reviewed every three years.
However, nine months after the renegotiation concluded in May 2021, ASUU said the Government has refused to sign and implement the renegotiated agreement. Odukoya said the MoA renegotiation was allegedly deliberately frustrated and delayed by the leadership of the erstwhile leadership of the renegotiated committee.
ASUU is also demanding for the regulation of the proliferation of State-owned universities by governors who it alleges owe staff salaries and payment of university subventions, leaving the universities with failing infrastructures.
