The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) promised on Wednesday to resume work – several months into its strike action – if the Federal Government pays their outstanding salaries.
The Ibadan zonal coordinator of the union, Professor Ade Adejumo, who was represented by Professor Moyosore Ajao, UNILORIN-ASUU chairperson, disclosed this at a press conference held at the conference room, Faculty of Art, University of Ibadan.
He maintained that despite the ongoing negotiation, the Federal Government had refused to pay their salaries and allowances.
At the press conference were representatives of schools under the Ibadan zone, Professor Moyosore Ajao (Unilorin), Professor Ayo Akinwole (UI), Dr. Femi Abanikanda (Uniosun), Dr. Biodun Olaniran (LAUTECH), and Dr. Dauda Adesola (KWASU).
According to the union, “We are ready to suspend the strike as our children too are tired of staying at home, but we cannot work on empty stomachs while politicians’ homes and warehouses are filled with palliative materials that they don’t even need.
“Let the politicians note that the interest of Nigeria and the future generations is more paramount to ASUU than the immediate gains of its members.
“That is why ASUU has been consistent in challenging the rot in the system through sustained engagements with the powers that be since the time of the military.
“The gains of ASUU struggles are in the changes that TETFund has been able to bring to the tertiary education sector in the country and ASUU will not relent in pushing for a better university system in the country.
“Some people have been wondering why ASUU is on strike again. The simple answer is that ASUU is on strike because of the survival of the university system where many of us still have our children as students, since we cannot afford sponsoring our children abroad with our measly salaries as politicians do.
“ASUU is on strike in order to restore the past glory of public universities and address the infrastructural decay and deficit in our institutions.
“ASUU is on strike for the legitimate dues of its members who are the least paid in the tertiary education sub-sector.
“For the sake of emphasis, the truth that will shock many Nigerians, which is available for verification, is that chief lecturers in some tertiary institutions, who are not required to supervise postgraduate students or conduct research, earn more than professors in our lopsided education system.
“At this stage of the struggle, Nigerians are urged to compel government to release the withheld salaries of our members, remit the check-off dues of the union to the rightful owner, pay us the same way it had paid our arbitrarily handpicked members without subjecting them to IPPIS registration, and speed up the process of testing the integrity of UTAS so that it may be deployed for payment, beginning from January 2021.
“The road may be tough, the burden is huge but ASUU remains committed to saving our public universities and not making them suffer the lot of our public schools. This is our stand and we stand firm.”