Nigeria Tertiary education may be set to witness another round of turmoil as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have hinted they may embark on strike to get their demands from the federal government.
According to the union, the unresolved 2009 Agreement they had with the Federal Government is the reason the union may embark on the industrial action.
The union is also asking the Federal Government to release the N150 billion revitalisation fund.
New President of ASUU, Professor Chris Piwuna, made this known at a press conference in Abuja on Friday.
The new ASUU President decried the level of implementation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement and called on the present administration not to test its resolve.
He added that the union has delayed embarking on strikes for about a year but commence one soon if the federal government continues to delay implementing the agreement.
He said “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.
“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.
“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.
“The university system has not been spared from the whirlwind of policy misadventures and orchestrated befuddlement of the polity.
“The governments of Nigeria, at the Federal and State levels, merely pay lip service to the business of education in general and the welfare of university academics in particular.
“It is saddening that the tortuous journey of renegotiating the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement has continued endlessly since 2017.”
He listed unaddressed issues between the Federal Government and the Union to include: conclusion of the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement based on Nimi Briggs Committee’s Draft Agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half months salaries on account of the 2022 strike action; release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time and adjunct appointments.
Others include the release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions; funding for revitalization of public universities; proliferation of universities by the Federal and State Governments, and others.
He stated that two years into the Tinubu administration, there has been no positive improvement as it relates to the education sector.
“It is noted that the government has made This is even as the Union has given its assessment of the Bola Tinubu two-year administration, lamenting that institutional weaknesses, bureaucratic inefficiencies, and endemic corruption undermine governance at all levels.”
