BY: News Peddlers
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) claims that the Federal Government is not serious about resolving the issues that prompted the nearly six-month strike.
The union, which announced that it would meet with government representatives today, August 16, called the government's move to placate its members into calling off the strike with salary increases rather than addressing the issues affecting university education in the country "unfortunate."
On Channels Television's Politics Today on Monday, August 15, ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke accused the government of paying lip service to university education.
"The government is not sincere in its dealings with us," he said. This has always been the problem.
"What we're doing is making the ultimate sacrifice to save this country and its youth." A collapsing university system is a collapsing country, and we're getting close. We will not be tired; instead, we will ensure that our university system functions properly.
"We have not received any serious communication from the government, despite the fact that they have invited us to renegotiate the 2009 agreement tomorrow" (today).
"The issues concern funding, structure, autonomy, and how to raise funds for Nigeria's university system." However, the government has narrowed the issue to just salary.
"If the government has thoroughly examined the issues, we will not be discussing funding." This government wants to use our salaries to blackmail us.
"Every university in the world is a self-contained entity." You do not make the university perform public service. This is how we got to where we are today.
"The renegotiation began in 2017 with the appointment of Mr. Wale Babalakin as chair of the talks." We worked on it for more than two years.
"When Babalakin was removed as Chancellor of the University of Lagos, the committee came to an end. Someone else was appointed.
"When a new committee is formed, the first question we ask is whether they have the authority to renegotiate the entire agreement with us, and they usually say yes.""