No pleasure in disrupting academic calendar of tertiary institutions — ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has explained that it derives no pleasure in disrupting the academic calendar of tertiary institutions through strikes.

On Monday September 28, 2020, the Union expressed its displeasure about the ongoing strike.

In a statement by chairperson and secretary of Kaduna State University (KASU) chapter of the union, Comrades Tukur Abdulkadir and Peter Adamu, warned that Nigerian universities were on the verge of collapse.

The masses, according to them, “are now at a crossroads in the country, as proclivity of the Nigerian ruling class, irrespective of their divides, has plunged us all into this quagmire. We must continually track, engage and resist their excesses for the survival of public university education and the country at large.”

“The goal of the total, comprehensive and indefinite strike is to get government to meaningfully address ASUU’s demands for revitalisation funds for public universities, renegotiation of the 2009 agreement, visitation panels to universities and proliferation of state universities, as well as governance issues in them,” they added.

The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti (FUOYE), Professor Kayode Soremekun, has said the sector had been plagued by “several combative union activities, which have adversely affected the academic programmes of public Universities.”

He stated that this “conflict of interests by unions is having adverse effects on the operations of the country’s ivory towers and diminishing their standards and ranking.”