Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports.
ASUU accuses the government of ignoring their demands.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) announced on Sunday that the signing and implementation of a renegotiated 2009 agreement will bring the five-month strike to an end.
The Union maintained that her members had made so many sacrifices for their own welfare that the Federal Government owed them 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 that all Nigerians must own in order for their children to have a future of quality education.
He claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration abused trust by failing to honor the Memorandum of Understanding and Memorandum of Action signed with the government.
According to Akinwole, Nigeria is in the hands of incompetent people as a result of Nigerians’ collective negligence, and that “the cycles of strikes will not end in Nigeria until we rise above sentiments to get responsible and responsive people who will be accountable to Nigerians into public offices.”
Professor Akinwole stated that President Mohammadu Buhari’s federal government is largely uncoordinated, where the president gives orders and his media aide denies giving such orders.
Akinwole reminded Nigerians that, despite the fact that the Federal Government had suspended their members’ salaries for five months, the lecturers are determined to defeat the parasitic ruling class.
He urged Nigerians to join the fight for government funding to revitalize public-funded universities in order to give children of the Nigerian masses a chance to govern their country, warning that unless this is done, the children of the ruling class educated in foreign universities will return to take over from their evil parents and continue to enslave Nigerians.
While stating that the Union will actively participate in the two-day protest organized by the NLC and other labor unions in the country, Professor Akinwole stated that it is unfortunate that President Buhari’s government, which prides itself on fighting corruption, will be frustrating the use of the homegrown solution for IPPIS, which has been discredited by the 2019 audit report.
The ASUU leader stated that members of the Union are also affected by the strike, not only financially, but also educationally, as many of them are pursuing doctoral degrees at public universities. He also stated that many will be affected as their promotion will be delayed, and “my own children are at home with me as well.”
“We got here through collective incompetence in electing incompetent people to public office.” The struggle for quality education for the masses’ children has devolved into a class war between the economic elite, the working class, and the ruling class. Unless we rise up and demand accountability from those in power to do what is best for the majority, the cycle of strikes and underdevelopment will continue.
“Nigerians keep electing people who don’t care about them.” We worship those who have money rather than those who have the right virtues and care about society. Our renegotiation should have been completed by 2012, but here we are in 2022, and the government is still playing games with us. We are requesting that existing agreements be renegotiated in order to position our members as human beings working in a decent environment.
“We are requesting that public universities be revitalized through appropriate funding.” We are saying that we have a better homegrown alternative to the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), that you should stop funding universities, and that Nigerians deserve to be ranked among the top 100 in the world if our leaders invest in education. We should create our own solutions rather than relying on others. Unfortunately, we have a disjointed Presidency and cabinet working at cross purposes. This strike is not about ASUU; it is about the children of Nigeria.”
