Abuja-The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has declared a total and comprehensive nationwide strike action.
According to the ASUU, “During the strike there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in any of our branches ” .
Addressing newsmen on Monday in Abuja, the ASUU National President, Comrade Biodun Ogunyemi said the strike became necessary since all efforts to get government to comply with the agreement and Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)signed in 2013 proved abortive.
He said; “Compatriots, it is no longer news that substantial aspect of the 2009 Agreement and 2013 MoU have remained unimplemented.
“The federal government promised to release N200 Billion as revitalization fund for public universities in 2013 and a yearly release of N220 billion subsequently from 2014-2018. To date, government is in arrears of N825 billion as the outstanding total of releases in respect of this fund.
He further said that, “the situation is worse in the State Universities where the State governments have not only failed to fund the existing universities but have gone ahead to establish new ones.
“Our members have continued to experience financial embarrassment arising from unpredictable monthly salary cuts. With the intervention of the Senate in November 2016, government undertook to refund the balance of the shortfall and restore full payment of salaries. There has not been any significant improvement since that promise”, he said.
The President also cited several other issues ranging from non release of the operational license of Nigerian Universities Pension Management Company, NUPEMCO, retired Professors and their pension, the fractionalization to the non payment of salaries.
He explained that ASUU did its best to get the federal government to fulfil its promises through series of letters and consultation meetings which yielded no result.
He however stressed that employers must fulfil the minimal obligation of paying their workers’ salaries correctly and at when due to ensure continued productivity
Comrade Ogunyemi called on Nigerians to prevail on the government at the federal and State levels to be alive to its responsibilities and implement the provisions of the 2009 Agreement, the MoU of 2013 and the understanding reached in November 2016.
