 |
| Dr. Nasir Fagge, ASUU President |
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, yesterday said the threat to implement a ‘No-work-No- Pay’ policy by the Federal Government would not stop the ongoing strike embarked upon by university teachers throughout the country.
The union in a press release titled; “ASUU on government threat of No- Work, No-Pay,” signed by the University of Ibadan branch Chairman, Dr. Olusegun Ajiboye and made available to journalists in Ibadan, described such as an ‘obsolete familiar threat.’
He said members of the union have resolved to pursue the ongoing strike to a logical conclusion to revitalise public universities with or without strike.
He said ASUU members have resolved and are convinced that the current struggle embarked upon by the union is a just one to defend the integrity of the university system in Nigeria and save it from universal mockery.
Ajiboye added that the minimum funding requirement to public universities as at 2013 is N500 billion and not N100 billion as being touted by the Federal Government, adding that anything short of that is unacceptable to the union.
He described Federal Government’s N100 billion offer as one that appears that the government ‘is just begging the matter’ on ground as the money is like a drop in the ocean, insisting that no blackmail or ordering of academic staff will break the ongoing strike.
He said: “The academic members remained resolute to pursue this struggle to its logical conclusion.”
On the N100 billion released as funding to the universities by the Federal Government, Ajiboye noted that this was just the beginning.
He continued: “Going by the ASUU agreement of 2009 and the MoU signed by the Federal Government in January 2012, the minimum funding requirement for the universities as at 2013 is N500 billion and not N100 billion.
“Only the provision of this sum will meet the immediate needs of addressing the rot and decay in public universities in the country. Anything short of this is not acceptable to the union.
“Therefore, rather than engaging in cheap blackmail and unworkable threat, the government should address the issues on the table. That is appropriate funding of the universities, payment of arrears of earned allowances to university workers and other allied matters.
“Anything short of full implementation of the agreement and the MoU remained unacceptable to the union.”
- National Mirror