ASUU issues strike notice, demands implementation of 2009

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Monday threatened to embark on another indefinite strike if the Federal Government fails to implement the agreement it reached with the union in 2009.

Addressing reporters at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, the Owerri zone of ASUU said it was deeply saddened that the Federal Government had failed to honour the agreement which it entered into without coercion.

The Owerri zone of ASUU comprises Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Imo State University, Owerri and Federal University of Technology, Owerri.

Coordinator of the union in the zone, Comrade Uzo Onyebinama regretted that government had spurned the magnanimity the union extended to it through the signing of various Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) and Memorandum of Action (MoA) on the way forward for Nigerian tertiary education.

“We are saddened that having reached the end of the tunnel, we couldn’t find any light. True to their character, the agents of the Federal Government of Nigeria have reneged from implementing the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.

“As we speak, federal government is still in arrears of major components of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement that includes funding for the revitalization of the public universities, earned academic allowances and the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.

“The situation has been compounded by the introduction of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the attendant consequences of the mutilated salaries, promotion arrears and the non-resolution of the more favoured University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

“We once again alert Nigerians that unless the government strives to sincerely resolve these issues, there will be no rest for us all. There will be no more MOUs or MOAs. When the macabre dance begins, there will be no stopping it until everything is fully implemented.

“The insincerity of the federal government is not just beyond understanding, it is beyond tolerance,” he said.

(Vanguard)