The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on a strike action if the Federal Government’s fails to implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) agreed upon by both parties.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, at the union’s National Secretariat, University of Abuja, the union’s National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the Federal Government is to be held accountable if it fails to address pending issues within three weeks.
He noted that the Federal Government has failed to address major outstanding issues, including funding for the revitalisation of public universities, inconsistencies in IPPIS payment, among others, as discussed with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige on October 14.
According to him, “ASUU is fully committed to upholding academic integrity in the universities and is working to make them more globally competitive.
“We are equally committed to promoting industrial harmony in the Nigerian university system for as long as all stakeholders are willing and committed to play their parts.
“We call on all Vice-Chancellors, as the main drivers of the system, to join us in this mission to safeguard the waning image of our universities.
“They have no business trading honorary degrees and academic positions for personal and immediate gains, thereby smearing the collective integrity of committed scholars and other patriots who are working day and night to uplift the system that produced them.
“Our union shall not shy away from taking the fight to administrators of Nigerian universities as well as internal and external agents who are bent on compromising the standards ASUU has consistently laboured to protect and improve.
“Government of Nigeria should be held responsible should ASUU be forced to activate the strike it patriotically suspended.
“Finally, we call on all patriotic Nigerians and lovers of Nigeria to prevail on the federal and state governments to act fast to prevent another round of industrial crisis in Nigeria’s public universities.”
Speaking on the appointment of the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, as a professor at the Federal University of Technology (FUTO) Owerri, Osodeke expressed that the union was not yet convinced of the circumstances surrounding the conferment.
He suggested an independent committee be set up to investigate all issues surrounding the controversial appointment.
