- According to ASUU's recent statement, there seems to be no hope in sight in relation to the long strike
- The union on Monday, December 24, said that after meeting with the federal government for six times, there is still no agreement reached
- Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU's boss, said that the union has nothing tangible to tell its members for the moment
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Monday, December 24, said that after six meetings with the federal government, it has nothing concrete in order to call off the industrial action.
Speaking with newsmen, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, the ASUU president, said that the union submitted the names of 11 universities with issues in the salaries of its members, and “the government kept saying they were working on it. If they pay that money, we will have something to take back to our members,” Punch reports.
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Ogunyemi added that the union would not turn down meetings with the federal government, “but if the government makes the meetings baseless, we will tell Nigerians.”
He stated: “Nothing concrete has been achieved so far. What we have been seeing are promises and promises. And what our members said in resuming the strike action is that we should come back to them when the government has implemented fully the outstanding issues in the Memorandum of Action in 2017.
“It is on that mandate that we stand. We have held six meetings and the government made only promises. The only thing so far is the report of the forensic audit with respect to Earned Academic Allowances.
“We talked about mainstreaming the EAA into the budget of the Federal Government. We constituted a committee which had submitted its report, but nothing has come out of it.
“On the issue of revitalisation funds, there are five outstanding tranches and how many of the tranches will the government be willing to release? Is it two or three tranches and when are they releasing them? These are the concrete actions we want to take back to our members. These are the questions we are asking from the government.
“We have submitted the names of 11 universities with shortfalls in the salaries of our members. The government kept saying they were working on it. If they pay that money also, we will have something to take back to our members.
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“The government also promised to set up a platform with the state governors, where we can discuss with them the best practices to run their universities. That has yet to be done also. So, we want the platform to be established concretely, so that matters relating to state universities can be thoroughly addressed.
“So, in all these areas and others, we have not seen any concrete action from the government. As of Monday, I have not seen any evidence. But if the government invites us, we will go.
"The ASUU has never rejected any meeting with the government. We don’t shun meetings. But if the government makes the meetings baseless, we will tell Nigerians.”
Meanwhile, Legit.ng reported that ASUU had said that it may not honour further calls by the federal government for a meeting on the way forward over the current strike by its members.
Ogunyemi, said this on the sideline of a news conference on the update of the union’s struggle to salvage the country’s public universities from deterioration on Sunday, December 23, in Lagos.
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