Parents and guardians have been told not to blame varsity teachers, if they go on strike over the non-implementation of the agreement between the Federal Government and various unions within the university.

Serving a strike notice at the weekend, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) said the Federal Government should be held responsible for the disruption of academic activities over the lingering dispute.

In a statement read at a news conference at the weekend in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, ASUU drew the attention of the public, including parents and students, to the non implementation of some aspects of the agreement reached between ASUU and the Federal Government more than two years ago.

At the conference were ASUU representatives from Benin Zone, comprising the union’s executives from Niger-Delta University (NDU), Bayelsa State, Ambrose Ali University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State and Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Delta State.

The ASUU members said the agreement was in relation to the amendment of the current Pension Act and the 70 years retirement age for varsity workers in the professional cadre.

The agreement, according to the lecturers “has been surprisingly jettisoned by the government”.

The statement reads: “The union wishes to state categorically that the Federal Government should be held responsible for any eventual industrial action over non-implementation of this agreement that it freely entered into with ASUU.”



www.thenationonlineng.net/2011/