Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ibadan Zone which comprises the University of Ibadan (UI), Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), Ogbomoso and the University of Ilorin, protested against what they described as the victimisation of their members by the federal government and its agents.
The Chairman, ASUU-UI, Prof. Ayoola Akinwole, while speaking with journalists yesterday, said the MOA reached with the government included the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, payment of outstanding Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and withheld salaries of 2020 and the release of the white paper by the visitation panel to the universities and inter-university centres, among other issues.
But he expressed dismay that since 23 December 2020, these items of the MOA had not been honoured and implemented by the government, leading to the declaration of strike action by ASUU on 14 February, 2022.
Akinwole maintained that the government, rather than swinging into action to resolve the issues, embarked on playing politics with the lives of Nigerians and moved quickly to stop the payment of ASUU members’ salaries for seven months, leading to starvation and death of some members of the Union.
According to him, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, intervened in the matter with a view to brokering peace between the executive arm of government and ASUU, stating that the agreement led to the suspension of the strike on 14 October 2022.
He, however, lamented that despite reaching an agreement with the Speaker, which led to the suspension of the strike, none of the items on the said agreement has been implemented.
He said, “The agreement with the Speaker included the following: The government is going to sign the new salary package, payment of the withheld salaries from March to October 2022
“Payment of the withheld third-party deductions, including Check-off dues from March to October 2022, non-victimisation of ASUU members who took part in the strike.
“Today’s protest has become necessary due to our conviction that the federal government is on a mission to destroy the public universities through inadequate funding, and through its war against ASUU.
“This war against ASUU by the government and the Nigerian elites has manifested in various ways such as violation and repudiation of all extant agreements reached with the Union, forcing the union into the strike, prolonging the strike by its inaction and victimization of ASUU members for embarking on strike, which they were forced into by the negligence and inaction by the government.
“In addition to the foregoing, ASUU members are being treated differently from members of other unions that also embarked on strike to press home their demands. For instance, the members of the Research Institutes embarked on a twelve-month strike and their salaries were paid throughout the period they were on strike.
“On the contrary, the salaries of ASUU members were stopped a month into the strike and members were expected to starve to death. This is evidence of double standard, inconsistency and selective treatment meted out to ASUU members by the government.”
He added: “Similarly, government has surreptitiously appropriated funds belonging to ASUU and its members. For instance, the government deducted check-off dues for the months of March, September and October 2022 without remitting the same to the Union.
“This was also the case in 2020 when about three months’ ASUU check-off dues were deducted by the government without remitting to the Union. The only explanation for this is that the government is hell-bent on destroying ASUU in order to have the freedom to destroy public universities.
“As a Union of intellectuals, it is our historical responsibility to protect the public universities from collapse and fight for the interest of our members as well as the interests of the Nigerian students. All these considerations necessitate today’s protest.”
