- Union plans ‘new decent salary, working conditions’
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government under him of treating its members like slaves.
The union said they only listen to and implement hat it called the destructive policy recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank against the larger interest of Nigerians.
It said poor policies formulated and implemented in the Education sector have been making the government to treat lecturers like slaves.
ASUU threatened to fight the slave merchants and liberate the nation’s lecturers by working for better conditions of service, including salaries and allowances as well as get the preferred conductive working and learning environments for students.
The union’s chairman at the University of Ibadan (UI), Professor Ayo Akinwole, announced this in a statement yesterday in Ibadan while reacting to an allegation by Education Minister Adamu Adamu that he was working on how to resolve the lingering issues between ASUU and the government when he heard that the union had declared a strike.
Akinwole said the Federal Government and those in charge of its education ministry had displayed what he called total incompetence and nonchalant attitudes to issues that matter to Nigerians.
The ASUU chairman said it would be untrue for any Nigerian to claim ignorance about the series of warnings the union had issued in the last one month before it resolved to proceed on the current one-month warning strike.
He explained that due to the stress arising from the failure of the government to recruit more university workers, many ASUU members had died while others simply left the country for greener pastures.
Akinwole said: “The Federal Government lacks integrity. It is sad. The government cannot be trusted any longer. We have been on the same salary for 13 years, and it is even shameful to show anyone your pay slip.
“When compared to the work we do, we have sacrificed for Nigeria to the detriment of our wellbeing. This is already dampening the morale of our people.
“The Federal Government should sign the renegotiated agreement, implement it, roll out UTAS, settle unpaid earned academic allowances, and commit more funds into the revitalisation of universities.”
The ASUU chairman urged parents to “impress it on the government to sign the new welfare package for our members,” adding: “If we fail to fight for our rights, the slave merchants in government will continue to trade with our future and the future of the children of the masses.”
