Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), have threatened to embark on strike over the failure of the Federal Government to address their grievances.
Despite the union’s assertion that it has tried both diplomatic and political methods without success, it maintains that it is interacting with a hypocritical government.
University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) chapter issued the threat on Thursday following a peaceful march around the institution to protest the federal government’s failure to implement an agreement with the union.
Members of ASUU-UNN, holding placards with messages such as “Government, stop forcing ASUU to embark on strike; government, honour agreements with ASUU; government, don’t kill university education in Nigeria; Nigeria lecturers are the least paid in the globe,” among other inscriptions, urged the government to renegotiate the 2009 agreement with the Union
The union members said they would support their national leadership’s call for nationwide indefinite strike if the federal government failed to meet the union’s demands after the 21-day ultimatum.
Comrade Oyibo Eze, Chairman of ASUU-UNN, addressed the UNN management on behalf of the union, describing the Nigerian government as hypocritical and wicked.
According to him, members of the Union had employed both diplomatic and political means to make the Presidency address their grievances, regretting that both had failed despite President Bola Tinubu’s promise to end the ASUU strike on assumption of office.
Eze alleged that the Presidency and members of the National Assembly keep appropriating common treasuries to themselves for their selfish interests while allowing the masses to wallow in abject poverty.
“The Union has tried all possible diplomatic and political means to resolve this issue. But after weighing all the other options, the only language the Nigerian government understands is strikes.
“Since 2009, ASUU has entered into an agreement with the federal government; every effort to renegotiate the agreement with the federal government has proved abortive.
“President Bola Tinubu made it clear during his campaign that he would end the ASUU strike by fulfilling all the demands of the Union, but immediately he assumed office, he never made efforts to match his words with action.
“Immediately after he assumed office, we articulated our grievances and sent them to him. We have done that up to three times, but we have not received any response from the government.
“Since he assumed office one year ago, our union has employed both political and diplomatic means to make the federal government address our grievances, but none yielded any result.
“We are dealing with a hypocritical government, which takes money in millions but is not able to give N100,000 to civil servants,” Eze said.
Professor Johnson Urama, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UNN, praised union members for using legitimate peaceful protests to express their dissatisfaction with the Federal Government in an address to the union.
Urama expressed optimism that the federal government would act fast to avert the looming ASUU strike, which would disrupt academic activities in tertiary institutions.
In 2022, ASUU embarked on a nationwide strike, which lasted eight months, over the federal government’s failure to implement its agreement with the union.
