ASUU Declares Nationwide Strike As Warning To FG

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a one week warning strike to lay serious emphasis to its demands to the federal government.

ThisDay reports that Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, who is the bodies president told journalists in Abuja that the strike became necessary given government’s failure to address and meet several demands and agreements that was made with the body.

He complained that the federal government had failed to adhere to and implement the 2009 agreement therefore this prompted the body to ask its members to embark on a one-week warning strike from Wednesday, 16th November, 2016 to protest against government’s action. ASUU has also accused the government of turning the establishment of universities into constituency projects to score cheap political points, an approach the union is vehemently opposed to.

Prof Ogunyemi has also pointed out that this lapse on the part of the federal government has caused anxiety in the educational community, one of which are its failure to meet up with payment of a fraction to staff entitlements and the denial of staff entitlements in respect of earned academic allowance amounting to about N128 billion. He also listed lack of funding of universities for revitalization and the refusal to register the Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company by the Pension Commission.

Other grudges that the union holds include the introduction of the Treasury Single Account which it said is affecting university autonomy, decrease in budgetary allocation to education and the refusal by government to renegotiate the 2009 agreement which was due for renegotiation since 2012.