The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that industrial action is not imminent, should the Federal Government fail to implement the agreements reached by both parties within the next two weeks.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that ASUU’s president, Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview said so far none of the agreements reached with the Federal Government had been implemented.
Recall that ASUU had threatened to embark on strike over the non-implementation of agreements reached with the federal government.
The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, had on June 26 invited the executives of the union meeting to deliberate on the lingering crisis affecting universities across the country in a bid to avert the planned strike.
However, Osodeke said none of the agreements reached with the Federal Government has been implemented.
His words, “At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we will meet to see the progress the government has made.
“We will also see what we will do next if the government fails to implement the agreements reached.
“The meeting in the next two weeks is to see what they have done which will inform our decision,” Osodeke said.
Re-negotiated 2009 agreements
Speaking further, the ASUU president said the 2009 re-negotiated agreements with the FG had already lingered for six years with the government yet to implement any of it.
Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years and nothing had been done about it
On the issue of the revitalisation fund, he said they agreed on the NEEDs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion yearly, for five years.
“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation funds to upgrade our universities to standard so that we can be having students and lecturers from outside the country,” he said.
Oshodeke further said that the Nigerian government is yet to stop the proliferation of universities while several new universities were being approved without funds to run them.
