The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has made an accusation that the Federal Government is imposing hardship on Lectures and students involving around the times that ASUU has lamented over the refusal of the government to fulfill their part of the bargain.
The ASUU Zonal Coordinator of Lagos Zone of the Union, Prof Adelaja Odukoya said on Friday at a press Conference that the government is showing negligence in upgrading of Nigerian Public Universities.
Odukoya added that despite their sincere effort to elevate the public universities to a global standard, the Nigerian Government has refused to fulfill its agreement with the Union.
He Explained that during the Last Nationwide strike which was suspended on October 14, 2022, it was required to inform Nigerians about the interaction between the Union and the present administration of President Tinubu.
The renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement, withheld salaries, unpaid arrears of earned academic allowance, removal from integrated personnel and payroll information system, public universities and the treasury single account, and proliferation of universities were the issues that resulted to the recent strike on February 2022 presented to the present administration that is falling to live up to the expectation placed by the union.
“As if the abuse and violation of TETFUND by the government are not enough, our union has further noted reports in the media, not refuted, of TETFUND’s intention to help King’s College, London, to establish a medical school in Nigeria in the name of partnership,” Odukoya stated
He further urged the government to provide funds meant for the development of the Nigerian Public Universities
“We urge the leadership of the Fund to provide further updates on this proposed course of action and allay fears that it is contemplating funds meant for the development of Nigerian institutions for the development of foreign ones. We believe very strongly that there are many areas in which the agency can strengthen its interventions to the benefit of Nigerian universities.”
Also, he called on other patriots in the media, labour movement, student organisations, and civil society organisations to join ASUU in the rejection of the government’s master-slave posture on labour matters for reposition.
