The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has vowed not to call off its nationwide strike until the federal government implements all past agreements made with the union.
While speaking with Punch, the ASUU chairman, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, said if the demands are not implemented, lecturers will not go back to class.
He said an action plan involving about seven items must be followed.
He said, “The least has been defined. In November last year, when we went to the National Assembly, the issues were itemised, seven, eight of them. The government was expected to have followed that pathway, to follow what I would call the action plan for resolving the matter.
“But for deviating from the action plan, the government exposed itself to the suspicion that it didn’t mean well. If it meant well, it must go back to that plan and from there, we address the issues.
“The government has defined the process for addressing the problem; it just needs to go back to it. It is because it didn’t act on the understanding, that is why we are back to where we are. This action was needless; it is like we were forced into it. Implementation must commence and the implementation we are talking about is not the issue of renegotiation.”
He said the government has refused to implement a 2013 agreement to revitalise universities with N1.3tn over a period of six years.
“The first year, the government was to release N200bn, which it did, but it took a long time for us to access it. But since that release in 2013, no single kobo has been released thereafter.
“For 2014, N220bn was not released. Again 2015 and 2016, nothing was released up to the third quarter of 2017. In all, we can estimate the outstanding amount to be about N825bn for revitalisation of our universities,” he said.
