The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on another round of strike following Federal Government’s failure to implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) agreed upon.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU National President, disclosed this on Monday, at a news conference at the union’s National Secretariat, University of Abuja.
Osodeke called on parents and all patriotic Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible if it failed to address the issues within three weeks after the news conference.
According to him, despite the unions meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige on Oct. 14, on the major outstanding issues which include, funding for revitalisation of public universities and earned academic allowances.
Other outstanding issues, he said were University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, and the inconsistencies in IPPIS payment, which up till now had not been addressed.
Osodeke said, “ASUU is fully committed to upholding academic integrity in the universities and is working to make them more globally competitive.
“We are equally committed to promoting industrial harmony in the Nigerian university system for as long as all stakeholders are willing and committed to play their parts.
“We call on all Vice-Chancellors, as the main drivers of the system to join us in this mission to safeguard the waning image of our universities.
“They have no business trading honorary degrees and academic positions for personal and immediate gains; thereby smearing the collective integrity of committed scholars and other patriots who are working day and night to uplift the system that produced them.
“Our union shall not shy away from taking the fight to administrators of Nigerian universities as well as internal and external agents who are bent on compromising the standards ASUU has consistently laboured to protect and improve.
“Government of Nigeria should be held responsible should ASUU be forced to activate the strike it patriotically suspended.
“Finally, we call on all patriotic Nigerians and lovers of Nigeria to prevail on the federal and state governments to act fast to prevent another round of industrial crisis in Nigeria’s public universities,” he said.
He, however, disclosed that the union was not convinced with the appointment of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as a Professor at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO) Owerri.
The ASUU President, who described the appointment as fraudulent, said an independent committee should be set up to investigate all issues surrounding the controversial appointment of Dr. Pantami as a Professor of Cyber Security in the University.
“The controversy this appointment has generated is unprecedented in the recent history of Nigerian universities, and indeed it has generated passionate comments and responses from individuals and groups within and outside the nation.
“The controversy centred on the perceived roles played by the University administration in the alleged fraudulent appointment, and the subsequent seeming endorsement by the ASUU branch at FUTO.
“Consequently, some media commentators – print electronic and social have impugned that the national body of ASUU was in agreement with the position of ASUU FUTO branch on the said appointment.
“Nothing could be farther from the truth, ASUU, as a union has never supported, promoted or endorsed any illegal appointment or promotion of academics in any Nigerian university, including those of its members.
“As a union, we have always insisted on strict adherence to due process and the rule of law in all aspects of university administration and governance,” he said.
The union further lamented the state of insecurity, especially in the educational institutions which he said was gradually becoming a norm, adding that the security architecture in the country has almost collapsed.
