Academic Staff Union Of Universities(ASUU), Yola Zone, on Friday, called on stakeholders to compel the federal government to honour its agreements with the union in order to avert another strike action.
The union said Nigerians will regret bitterly the kind of action ASUU will take towards pressing home its demands, and advised the citizens not to blame its members but president Muhammadu Buhari led federal government.
Equally, the union vowed not to entertain any plea from any stakeholder to call off its industrial action whenever its members down tool, saying it is going to be an indefinite total shutdown of the all universities.
More so, the ASUU observed with dismay how the take back home of its members do not take them back home, and regretted that its members are left with no option than to prepare and cross the read line.
The Yola Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Reuben Jonathan, made the call during press conference at the Nigeria Union of Journalists(NUJ) press centre in Yola, Adamawa state.
The Coordinator of the union told newsmen that the zone convened at the Modibbo Adama University (MAU), Yola on Thursday, December 9th, 2021 and reviewed the Memorandum of Action (MoA) entered into with the FG on 23rd December, 2020, after a prolonged strike by the union.
Jonathan recalled that in their press conference in Yola on the 15th December, 2021, the union briefed the press on the government's refusal and foot-dragging in implementing the said agreement, lamenting that since then, nothing has been done by the government to address the issues beside propaganda and blackmail.
He said that the issues in contention remain: renegotiationof the 2009 Agreement, University Transparency Accountabilty Solutions (UTAS), State of the State Universities, Revitalisation Funds for Public Universities and Earned Academic Allowances(EAA).
On the issue of renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, he lamented that the refusal of the government to address the issue has left them on the same salary for 12 years even as the government has reviewed the minimum wage twice.
While on UTAS, he noted that they have developed a robust and dynamic system known as UTAS which passed through integrity test without shortcoming, but unfortunately, the beneficiaries of corrupt -laden Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System(IPPIS) have continued to ensure that UTAS does not see the light of the day.
According to him, it it worrisome to note that the state governments in recent times have politicised the establishment of state universities, leading to the neglect of the noble values of universities and universal entities, and that undue interference in the governance of these universities is counterproductive and erodes the autonomy of the universities.
He added that though education is an inalienable right of every Nigerian child, they are aware that due to flagrant neglect and frustration of public universities, government functionaries are deliberately denying the poor Nigerian children access to university eduction as their children are secured in private iniversities all over the world.
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