The leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Sunday, called on Nigerians to pressurize the Federal Government to honor their agreement to forestall fresh indefinite strike.
The President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday, in Lagos.
According to him
“Government has not kept faith with our MOA signed on February 7. What government ought to have done, they do not want to do any more. They have literally gone to sleep.
“For instance they had promised before the suspension of the strike, to set up visitation panel to our universities within two weeks and three months after government has not done anything in that regard.
“At least, not to my knowledge that they had put any panel in place nor inaugurated any.
“By February 28 of this year, government had promised to pay the union, N25 billion part payment of outstanding arrears of the EARN academic allowances.
“During our renegotiation with Dr. Wale Babalakin, they promised to put us in a more cordial path with fair guidelines when we come back to the renegotiation table but now, there seems to be no change of attitude on the side of government.”
He explained that the government had told the union that the funds had been approved, but Ogunyemi said that there was a huge difference between approval of such funds and its implementation.
He lamented that three months after the said approval, the funds were yet to be released to the Union by the Federal Government.
“Our members have begun to express doubts about government’s promise to fulfill its pledge faithfully. And when this pressure begins to mount there is nothing the leadership can do because leadership must hearken to the voice of followers.
“The point is that we are not keen about disrupting the academic calendar. What we are doing is to express our worries and carry the public along. So, Nigerians must come out now and speak to government concerning all these things raised to maintain the current precarious industrial stability on our campuses,” he said