The government’s intentions to increase the cost of attending a university are opposed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU claims that this action may make higher education inaccessible for students from low-income backgrounds.
The Union also voiced alarm over what it refers to as “the government’s systematic withdrawal from funding public institutions through the projected introduction of education loans,” which it believes has been a total failure in nations where it has been put into practice.
The resolutions were reached at the conclusion of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Calabar, according to a statement released on Monday by Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, National President of ASUU.
Professor Osodeke drew Nigerians’ attention to the lingering issue of renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, which he said was the initial issue that led to the recently suspended strike, and added that what was more concerning was the government’s increasing “anti-labour” posture, which suggested attempts to abrogate the principle of the collective bargaining agreement.
Professor Osodeke claims that the NEC rejected the government’s demand for an award rather than a salary package that had been negotiated.
‘’The meeting also reviewed and condemned the government’s attempt to casualize the job of intellectuals, as reflected in the pro-rated salaries paid to our members for the month of October 2022, as well as the continued withholding of our members’ salaries for the preceding 8 months, even when the backlog of work is being covered by our members in various universities’’ he stated.
ASUU wants Nigerians to put pressure on the government to take care of unfinished business in the FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action for December 2020.
