The Yola Zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the Federal Government of insensitivity manifested in its refusal to implement agreements from several years ago.
The ASUU Yola Zone, which comprises six branches that include Modibbo Adama University Yola, University of Maiduguri, Federal University Gashua, Taraba State University Jalingo, Adamawa State University Mubi, and Yobe State University Damaturu, stated that it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to be consistently reneging on agreements.
In a statement released in Yola on Wednesday by the ASUU Yola Zonal Chairman, Dani Mamman, the union asked the Federal Government to stop toying with the future of Nigerians by implementing, in particular, the agreement reached in 2022 with ASUU, which led to the suspension of the strike that year.
“The failure of government to implement the contents of several memoranda of understanding and action between 2013 and 2022 has particularly hampered access to wholesome industrial harmony in public universities,” the union said.
It said instead of the Federal Government addressing the issues at stake, “it went into slumber, which is a clear manifestation of its insensitivity to the plight of Nigerian students.”
It added that although the union had on August 21, 2024, issued a 21-day ultimatum for the resolution of all the issues in contention since 2009, nothing tangible has changed except for meetings and more meetings for which government agents were more concerned with receiving allowances.
“Let us make it crystal clear that at the end of two additional weeks that our union (national leadership) gave the federal government, if nothing concrete comes out, our members will not hesitate to withdraw our services,” the union stated.
It said that if the fresh two-week ultimatum (issued last week) should elapse without an agreeable response from government and ASUU starts its strike, ASUU should not be held responsible for the breakdown in industrial harmony.
“This will arise as a result of the government’s insensitivity, insincerity, indifference and time-buying gimmicks,” the union asserted.
It said it could not see why the government, which has billions of naira to renovate the house of the vice president, acquire a presidential yacht and buy SUVs for lawmakers, would lack the meagre amount to fix universities, which produced most of them.
