ASUU Strike : Union appeals to President Buhari to sign agreement 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria ASUU has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to reposition the Nigerian Universities and reconsider the signing of the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement as a parting lot for Nigerians.

The President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke appealed while speaking to Journalists on the lingering strike in the Nigerian public universities.

ASUU also challenged the Nigerian government to publish the 2019 Auditor General’s report on Integrated Payroll and  Personnel System IPPIS, adding that, this will reveal the variance in the IPPI system.

“As a Union, we want to beg President Muhammadu Buhari and appeal to the President to look into this matter with the fatherly passion to re-consider addressing the challenges facing Nigerian Universities  let this one be a parting lot to Nigerians to transform the Nigerian Universities to where it can compete with other universities in the world by signing that agreement or directing the Ministry to sign the agreement”

He further decried the attitude of the supervising Ministries to the five-month-old strike saying the Ministers have not taken full responsibility for addressing ASUU.

According to him, the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, who is serving a reconciliatory purpose on the face-off has assumed the position of the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu who is supposed to be in dialogue with the Union.

“what the Minister of labour has done is a complete insult to the character of people like Professor Nimi Briggs, Senator Chris Adighije, Professor Olu Obafemi,” 

The ASUU President added that instead of the Minister reconciling the government and the Union, he has been pointing accusing fingers at individuals who served in special committees.

“The minister of labour instead of looking for how to resolve the problem is busy abusing his colleagues, abusing even the Minister of Education.”

Prof. Osodeke however appealed to the students and lecturers affected by the strike to exercise more patience describing their current ordeal as the fight for the soul and the future of the Nigerian public universities.

“For the students and the lecturers my appeal to them is to be please be patient you are fighting for the victory of Nigerian Universities, you are fighting for your children and your great-grandchildren”

“If we can change this trajectory that we have today and without having universities that children are coming from abroad from all over the country and the children of the Ministers and you all can sit in the same lecture hall and have lectured, stay in the same hostel that is what we are fighting for, the future will honour you for.your fight”

Some of the demands of ASUU  include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement, deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of lecturers, and the release of the white paper report on the visitation panels to universities among others.

ASUU embarked on industrial action, on the 14th of February, after an alleged failure of the government to meet its demand.

Dominica Nwabufo