The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the weekend reiterated its determination to rescue the nation’s education sector from the enslavement of the political class. The National Convener, ASUU Committee on Human Rights, Dr. Sola Olorunyomi, spoke while participating on a radio programmme in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
He said the Federal Government and the political class had conspired to under-develop Nigeria by refusing to fund education.
It will be recalled that ASUU has been on strike for the past three weeks over the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement it signed with the Federal Government aimed at revitalising the ailing university education.
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Olorunyomi said the union would continue with the strike until the agreements are fully implemented, saying the enslavement of education must be stopped.
Speaking on the possible threat of “No work No pay,” he said ASUU had resolved not to be caged by such intimidation, insisting that only the full implementation of the agreement would facilitate the resumption of the lecturers to the classrooms.
Olorunyomi, however, said members of the academic union only withdrew the teaching component of their calling, noting that they are fully involved in research and community services.
He said: “After about 300 years of slave trade, the Federal Government attempts to make this era a second or third slavery will not be allowed. Our students have asked us not to come back without achieving results from our strike.
“The Federal Government is not committed to paying bursaries again for students. The necessary equipment are not in our laboratories; there is no light, no functional internet facilities, we cannot even attract foreign scholars into our universities due to the lamentable conditions we work. My salary cannot even take me home. We can’t be fooled again. We must fight for the revitalization of this education industry.”
Olorunyomi, who is a senior lecturer at the Institute of African Studies and member, University of Ibadan Strike Information sub-committee, said the Federal Government’s body language showed insincerity.
He said ASUU was shocked when the government representatives, who met with the union, feigned ignorance of the strike and any agreement until they were showed their signatures in the document.
Olorunyomi said: “We are resolute this time. We are prepared to go hungry. You can’t believe that the people we met first feign ignorance of the agreement not until our team brought out the memorandum of agreement and some of them saw their signatures. It was a drama of sort but you can only have that in Nigeria. We are doing more than we are earning. Cutting edge researches are dwindling because we have no funding. We have people who have developed alternative to power in University of Ibadan, but they do not have support to go beyond that level. University of Ibadan developed sweet corn, pando yam and several others. The political elite are hypocrites and are more interested in rent economy.”
Meanwhile, the Osun State University branch of ASUU has declared an indefinite strike, vowing not to resume work until the state government meets its demands.
The union, in a statement signed in Osogbo by its chairman, Dr. Abiona Oluseye and the secretary, Mr. Wende Olaosebikan, said the strike would be “total, indefinite and comprehensive.”
The union said: “Osun State Government introduced a neck-breaking tax over the basic and allowances components of our salaries and apart from this, no single member of academic staff in UNIOSUN has enjoyed his or her 56 working days statutory leave to which we are entitled since inception of the university.
“The Osun State University has no operational condition of service, as such, appointment, promotion, emoluments of our members are arbitrarily determined with impunity.”
The union also rejected the merger of the university with the ministry of education, noting that to ensure optimum performance and smooth academic calendar, the institution must not be merged with any ministry.
“Due to this merger, salaries of staff are being paid by Abeere, the seat of governance and the quarterly allocation of the young university has been replaced by monthly subvention thereby paving the way for undue delay of release of funds,” it said.”
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