ASUU accused the Tinubu government of using delay tactics, holding meetings that lead to resolutions that are never implemented.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that it may be forced to resume strike action nationwide, accusing President Bola Tinubu’s government of insincerity, deliberate neglect, and failure to implement agreements reached with the union.
Speaking at a press conference broadcast on AIT and monitored by SaharaReporters on Thursday, the Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Nsukka Zone, Christian Opata, said Nigerian lecturers have been left with no option but to return “to the trenches.”
“As you are aware, our union has been dialoguing with the government for over a decade on the same issues. Within this period, agreements were reached, timelines were given, but each time the government would brazenly and unashamedly jettison the agreements and fail to act within the timelines,” Opata stated.
He noted that while Nigerians may have been surprised that ASUU had not embarked on a strike in the last two years, this was not because the government had addressed its demands but because the union deliberately restrained itself to prove it was not a “strike-mongering body.”
“This was simply our way of demonstrating to Nigerians and the global community that we are not strike mongers as speculated. Having given the government time to show some elements of sincerity, seriousness, and display some level of humanity, we have no option but to put them and the public on notice that we may go back to the trenches (go back to strike),” he said.
Listing the core grievances fueling the looming strike, Opata said: “The bones of contention are legion, but prominent among them are the renegotiation of the 2009 agreements between ASUU and FGN, the gradual and purposeful erosion of university autonomy, the tactical withdrawal from the principles of collective bargaining, refusal to revitalize public universities, non-payment of withheld and outstanding salaries of our members for work they have done, non-payment of promotion arrears to staff, the criminal withholding of third-party deductions, the non-payment of the 25 to 30 percent wage increase, the starving of universities of funds, and the attempt to reload our members into slavery.”
ASUU accused the Tinubu government of using delay tactics, holding meetings that lead to resolutions that are never implemented.
“The antics of summoning the union to meetings that the resolution reached in such meetings would not be honored are unacceptable,” he said.
“We are aware that the government is deliberate in its actions, and we may be forced not to honor any meetings with which they summon until they show commitment. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine.”
Opata described the government’s neglect as a deliberate attempt to undermine Nigeria’s intellectual capacity, warning that the brain drain of academics and young scholars abroad is proof of the consequences of starving universities of funds.
“It is lamentable that Nigeria casts its own genius into the dust. The waves of progress made by some sons and daughters of this country in diaspora attest to the wealth of Nigeria’s intellectual capability. ASUU, as a union of intellectuals, is determined not to give up in the struggle for Nigeria to emerge as a giant in education standard and prowess,” he concluded.
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