‘We’ve lost hope in President Tinubu’

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a “loss of hope in the sincerity” of President Bola Tinubu’s administration to resolve the lingering issues in public universities.

Consequently, the teachers issued an additional 14-day ultimatum at the expiration of the initial 21-day strike notice for the Federal Government to address and permanently settle their demands.

A statement by ASUU Coordinator, Kano Zone, Prof Abdulkadir Muhammad, yesterday, reminded the Federal Government that failure to respond positively before the end of the 14-day ultimatum would lead to another round of industrial unrest across public universities.

According to the statement, ASUU claimed that since the inception of the current administration, the government has allegedly spurned moves to open discussion on the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN /ASUU Agreement, payment of withheld salaries, the release of revitalisation fund, and implementation of migration of ASUU from the controversial IPPIS to UTAS.

The lecturers said: “Over the past four years, our public universities have been in a state of industrial disharmony, leading to two costly and avoidable strike actions. The nation had high hopes and expectations that the President Tinubu-led administration would swiftly resolve the contending issues that led to those strike actions. However, these hopes have been disappointingly dashed, resulting in seething discontent among our members whose patience has been overstretched.

“The leadership of ASUU has made several concerted efforts to dialogue with government officials, including the President, to address the outstanding issues in the agreement and the various memoranda signed between the Union and the Federal Government. Unfortunately, the Tinubu’s administration, like the Buhari’s, has been unyielding.

“The nonchalant attitude of the administration to our legitimate and reasonable demands compelled the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU, following wide consultations, to convene a meeting at the University of Ibadan from 17th to 18th August 2024, where it exhaustively deliberated on the contending issues and resolved to give a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government of Nigeria to address them.”