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ASUU decries FG’s non-chalant attitude to education sector

By Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
21 February 2022   |   4:05 am
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that poor policies formulated and implemented in the education sector have been making the Federal Government to treat lecturers like slaves.

Vows to liberate members from indecent salary, working conditions
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that poor policies formulated and implemented in the education sector have been making the Federal Government to treat lecturers like slaves.

It, therefore, described the Federal Government as slave merchant, which only listens and implements destructive policy recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank against the larger interest of Nigerians.

The union said it would liberate lecturers in the country by getting better conditions of service, including salaries and allowances, as well as getting the preferred conductive working and learning environment for students.

Chairman of ASUU at the University of Ibadan (UI), Prof. Ayo Akinwole, stated this in a statement, yesterday, while reacting to the allegation of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who claimed that he was looking for ASUU to resolve the issues before he heard they had declared strike.

According to Akinwole, the Federal Government and those put in charge of education ministry have displayed total incompetence and non-chalant attitudes to what matters to Nigerians, saying it was total falsehood for anyone in Nigeria to claim not to have heard or read series of ASUU’s warnings on the pages of newspapers at least one month before the union resolved to proceed on one-month warning strike.

Akinwole said that failure of the Federal Government to recruit more academic members of staff, ASUU had lost many of her members to death, while others simply moved out of the country in search of greener pastures.

He noted: “The Federal Government lacks integrity. It is sad. The government cannot be trusted any longer. We have been on the same salary for 13 years and it is even shameful to show anyone your pay slip. When compared to the work we do, we have sacrificed for Nigeria to the detriment of our well-being and this is already dampening the morale of our people. The Federal Government should sign the renegotiated agreement, implement it, roll out UTAS, pay unpaid earned academic allowances and commit more funds into the revitalisation of universities.”

The ASUU leader, therefore, urged parents to “impress it on government to sign the new welfare package for our members. If we fail to fight for our rights, the slave merchants in government will continue to trade with our future and future of the children of the masses.”

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