The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr.
Nasir Fagge, on Thursday vowed that ASUU would continue its on-going
strike until the union�s demands were met by the Federal Government.
Fagge made the declaration while addressing journalists at the University of Lagos on the latest development on the strike.
He said, �I wish to state clearly our position so far in the whole
process of the negotiations with government since the strike commenced.
We are currently calling on government to meet our demands as presented
in the agreements we both signed in 2009 and then we can start talking
about any other form of re-negotiation.
�A lot of people are asking us to shift grounds by accepting
government�s offer of N30bn and going back to class while we reach an
agreement on when the next instalments will be paid.
�I do not see that as being acceptable to us for now because we had made
that mistake before, whereby only the salary component of the agreement
was singled out and so we cannot afford to make such a mistake again.
�I want to make it categorically clear that until this whole agreement
is fully implemented, we are not going to call off this strike.�
The university lecturers have since June 30 embarked on what they
described as a �total, comprehensive and indefinite strike in public
universities across the country.�
Members of the union had before now, been holding deliberations with
representatives of government, headed by Governor Gabriel Suswam of
Benue State on ways of resolving the strike.
Fagge explained that both the government and ASUU had presented their
demands in 2006 and after three years of negotiations, the parties
succeeded in reaching an agreement in 2009.
According to the ASUU president, agreements are not negotiable and that
is why the union is insisting on the implementation of the agreements.
He said that members of the union were determined to prosecute the strike to its logical conclusion.
Fagge said that the implementation of the agreement was a cardinal issue
that must be accomplished by the union as this would give the much
needed impetus for transforming the country�s ivory towers.
He noted that this would not only transform the universities but would
equally make Nigeria visible on the global radar of development.
He stressed that the struggle was not just to re-position the education
sector, particularly the university system, but to salvage the country.
He said that members of academia had taken it upon themselves to
reposition the country, so that within the shortest possible time,
Nigeria would find itself amongst the comity of nations that would be
adjudged by the international community as developed.
Fagge, however, regretted that contrary to subsisting operational
procedures, about 75 per cent of the fund meant for the revitalisation
of the universities were not going to be released directly to the union.
He said that the Suswanm-led committee planned to hand it over to the
National Universities Commission for implementation, saying that this
was �unacceptable�.
�Until and unless the Suswam committee gives the union a guarantee that
it will not serve as another means of recycling TETFUND money or divert
funds meant for universities, ASUU representatives will not continue to
participate in the deliberation of the committee,� he said.
campus gist
