Strike Alert: ASUU gives FG ultimatum, sign agreement, release funds or face strike

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has hinted at embarking on a strike to press home its demands over the unresolved 2009 Agreement with the Federal Government. The union’s new president, Professor Chris Piwuna, stated this at a press conference in Abuja, lamenting that institutional weaknesses, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and endemic corruption undermine governance at all levels.

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“We think that the Yayale Ahmed Committee has worked hard, and that we have finished the work with them, and that we need to hear from them,” Piwuna said. “We haven’t heard from them, and we think that they should go back. The Yayale Ahmed Committee should meet with their principals and get back to us as soon as possible. We have exhausted our patience in waiting for this renegotiated agreement.”

Piwuna expressed displeasure with the enormous challenges facing university academics, including hostile work environments and debilitating conditions of service. He called on the Nigerian government to address all outstanding issues from previous engagements for the development of the education system.

“The ordinary citizens of our country have become the victims of prolonged political manipulations and economic exploitation by the ruling class and their foreign sponsors,” he said. “The university system has not been spared from the whirlwind of policy misadventures and orchestrated befuddlement of the polity.”

The union leader listed unaddressed issues between the Federal Government and ASUU, including the conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, release of withheld salaries, and funding for revitalisation of public universities. He also alleged that funds meant for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) were being diverted to finance the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).

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Piwuna stated that two years into the Tinubu administration, there has been no positive improvement in the education sector. “It is noted that the government has made promises on some of these issues,” he said. “However, we are still waiting for the government to fulfil these promises.”

The union is also seeking the release of the N150 billion revitalisation fund and has expressed frustration over the delay in signing the renegotiated agreement. “Delegates at the UNIBEN National Delegates’ Conference exhaustively evaluated the government’s disposition in resolving outstanding issues with the Union and expressed regrets that nothing has significantly changed in the last two years,” Piwuna added

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