Latest update from the ongoing ASUU strike action is "even if it takes us
another 10 years, we will remain at home". This was revealed by the Zonal
Coordinator, Benin
zone of ASUU, Dr. Ighalo Sunny, yesterday.
The aggrieved union yesterday, expressed the resolve of members to stay at home
for up to 10 years than call off the current strike action embarked upon by the
union five weeks ago, if the Federal Government continues to shy away from the
agreement it reached with the union in 2009.
President Goodluck Jonathan had Tuesday, approved the implementation of the
recommendation of the government committee on repositioning of federal and
state universities.
But the Benin Zone of ASUU described as a shame, government’s refusal to meet
its end of the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, entered with ASUU in 2009,
wherein government promised to release N100 billion immediately out of the
N500billion it agreed to pay.
Dr. Ighalo Sunny, said yesterday, that part of the MOU signed in 2012 between
the Federal Government and the union was that government will increase the
yearly budgetary allocation to the educational sector to 26 per cent among
others.
He said: “It is sad that government has failed to fulfill the agreement on the
universities. The N500 billion is not to pay lecturers but to fund
infrastructural decay in Nigerian universities. What that means is that
government has not shown readiness to implement same. For us, the solution is
simple, honour and implement fully the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement. We believe that
the 2009 agreement is the antidote to the debilitating crisis bedevilling
Nigerian universities.
He described the rumour that ASUU will soon call-off the strike as a folktale
ans said that the union appreciates the interest shown by stakeholders and
groups in the crisis, “ but that will not stop us from finding lasting solution
to the decay in our education sector. So, even if it takes us another 10 years,
we will remain at home until the right thing is done.”
Culled from www.Yada.ng
