The Owerri Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, on Monday warned that if the Federal Government fails to meet the outstanding demands as contained in the renegotiation agreement between ASUU and the Government, it will embark on an indefinite strike action soon.
The zone also threatened that nothing will make the Union call off the strike if it starts, except if all the agreements that have been renegotiated are signed and fully implemented.
ASUU chapters in Owerri zone include those in Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, COOU, Igbariam-Anambra State, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, FUTO- Imo State, Imo State University, IMSU, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Uturu-Abia State and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, NAU-Awka Anambra State.
Addressing newsmen in Awka today, the ASUU Owerri Zonal Coordinator, Comrade Uzo Onyebinama accused the representatives of the Federal Government in the ASUU negotiation of reneging in implementing the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, adding that the magnanimity of ASUU has been taken for granted.
According to him, they have moved from agreements to Memoranda of Understanding, MoUs and then to Memoranda of Actions, MoAs, but all of them have been breached.
“As we speak, the Federal Government is still in arrears of major components of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement that includes funding for the revitalization of public universities, earned academic allowances and the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.
“What we are saying is that if we start this strike now, we are not going to suspend it until everything is fully implemented because we have used the MoUs and MoAs to give the government the breathing space to resolve these issues at their own pace, but all efforts have failed.
“We know there will be no rest for us because Nigerians may be against us and even the students who we are fighting for because they may want us to come back but we may not listen to them,” he said.
Onyebinama who could not state categorically when the strike will commence said what is before them now is much bigger than what they have done before.
“That is why we need to prepare because the action now will be of high impact and like I said when we start, there will be no going back until all conditions are met.
“This time there is no giving them a second chance because of their non-challant attitude to the whole matter,” he warned.
He regretted that the issue of renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement which has been concluded, has not been signed, nor has it been implemented.
According to him, the agreement is going to give them a new salary structure after 12 years.
He said; “Since 2009, we have been on the same salary and we know that inflation and the devaluation of the naira have wiped off whatever gains that agreement may have brought for the academic staff.
“So it is important we insist that government should sign and implement that agreement.
“Again, on the issue of the Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS, the government has subjected it to various tests and the reports we have received are that UTAS has successfully passed those tests but the agents of government have refused to submit their reports and without those reports, UTAS cannot become functional.
“So, we are saying that they should submit their reports so that UTAS can be adopted for the payment of salaries of academic staff.
“As we speak, we have members who have not received salaries for the past ten months. In addition to not pay these ones, there are also salary mutilations and deductions made at will.
“These are issues we are talking about.”
Also contributing, a former Chairman of ASUU NAU-Awka, Prof Dennis Aribodor called on all well-meaning Nigerians to join ASUU to ensure that the idea of commercializing education is jettisoned and that education is not priced above the reach of poor Nigerians.
“Education is supposed to be a right as obtains in many developed countries of the world.
“However, in Nigeria, there are conscious efforts by the leaders to ensure that Nigerians are not educated.
“This is evident in the paltry sum allocated to education in the nation’s annual budget.
“Most of these leaders have their children studying abroad or in very expensive private universities and they want their children to dominate every other child, which is why they have refused to invest in the public universities, which takes care of over 90 percent of our tertiary education students.
“Today, we have more private universities in the country than the public universities.
“All Nigerians should join the union to ensure that the idea of commercializing education and pricing it above the reach of the poor masses, does not work because if that happens, the greatest sufferer will be the poor,” Aribodor opined.
