Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Alex Ekwueme Federal University Ndifu-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State (AE-FUNAI) on Wednesday shutdown academic activities in the school following their protest against poor conditions of service.
The lecturers in their numbers marched round the university, accusing the federal government of being insensitive to their plights.
They further added that they will go into full strike if the federal government after two weeks failed to address their grievances.
The Guardian gathered that the protest was led by their Chairperson of the union, Comrade Louis Omenyi, who insisted that a total strike may be embarked upon by the lecturers if their demands were not met.
He decried the fact that the federal government has refused to pay lecturers their salaries when they embarked on strike in 2022.
He said, “The public blames ASUU, they said they don’t know why we are striking like thunder. Now we want to tell everybody that we are going to strike harder than thunder this time around because of the following.
“Up till today, 2022 salaries are still being withheld, we are being owed three and half months of a very useless salary that we have been receiving since 2009, more than 15 years ago, that’s what we receive as university lecturers. Is that acceptable?
“No governing council, if you go to other federal universities in Nigeria, there is no governing council. We are asking for improved salaries according to the agreement we signed with the federal government of Nigeria.
“President (Bola) Tinubu cornered the union and promised that immediately he comes in as the President, he will not only bring Agbado , he is going to pay us and resolve all our problems in the universities. Now more than one year today, salaries cannot be paid.
“More than one year today, we are being owed the salaries that were supposed to have been paid in 2022 when we went on strike. Up till today, people at Ebonyi State University are still chasing our members around, frustrating them without salaries so that they will die out of hunger.
“As a union, we are saying no to the federal government. They have just two weeks from today to do the needful and shall tell them why we can strike more than thunder”.
