Students on receiving end as ASUU embarks on another warning strike in FG face-off
Students will once again be made to bear the brunt of the continuous disagreement between the Nigerian government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), as the association will begin a one-week warning strike on Wednesday, November 16.
The strike will commence as a result of the government’s failure in implementing their 2009 agreement as ASUU’s National President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, on Monday said in a news conference that “Many aspects of the 2013 MoU and the 2009 Agreement with the Federal Government have either been unimplemented or despairingly handled.
“The agreements are: Payments of staff entitlements since December 2015, funding of universities for revitalisation, pension, TSA and university autonomy and renegotiation of 2009 Agreement,” he explained.
“Failure by the Federal Government to implement this agreement has put ASUU leadership in severe difficulty, responding to inquiries from members of the union about the state of our agreement.”
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He lamented the government’s allocation of a paltry 8% from the 2016 budget to the union, a significant drop from the previous 11%.
“With the release of the 2016 Annual Budget, our union wondered aloud why allocation to education dropped from 11 per cent in 2015 to eight per cent in 2016.
“With the introduction of TSA, the federal universities find it extremely difficult to discharge their core responsibilities of teaching, research and community services.
“We tried to correct the erroneous impression in government circles that the capital and research grants to universities were being handled by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund,” he said.
Ogunyemi said that during the warning strike, there shall be no teaching, examination and no attendance at statutory meetings in all branches nationwide.
More often than not, a warning strike precedes a more lengthy classroom layoff, as the government rarely responds to such emergencies on time.
