BENIN CITY—Academic Staff Union
of Universities, ASUU, Benin
Zone, yesterday, expressed the
resolve of members to stay at
home for up to 10 years than
call off the current strike action embarked upon by the
union five weeks ago, if the
Federal Government continues
to shy away from the
agreement it reached with the
union in 2009. President Goodluck Jonathan
had Tuesday, approved the
implementation of the
recommendation of the
government committee on
repositioning of federal and state universities. But the Benin Zone of ASUU
described as a shame,
government’s refusal to meet
its end of the Memorandum of
Understanding, MOU, entered
with ASUU in 2009, wherein government promised to
release N100 billion immediately
out of the N500billion it agreed
to pay. The Zonal Coordinator, Benin
zone of ASUU, Dr. Ighalo Sunny,
said yesterday, that part of
the MOU signed in 2012
between the Federal
Government and the union was that government will increase
the yearly budgetary allocation
to the educational sector to 26
per cent among others. He said: “It is sad that
government has failed to fulfill
the agreement on the
universities. The N500 billion is
not to pay lecturers but to
fund infrastructural decay in Nigerian universities. What that
means is that government has
not shown readiness to
implement same. For us, the
solution is simple, honour and
implement fully the 2009 FGN/ ASUU agreement. We believe
that the 2009 agreement is the
antidote to the debilitating
crisis bedevilling Nigerian
universities.” Describing the rumour that
ASUU will soon call-off the strike
as a folktale, he noted that the
union appreciates the interest
shown by stakeholders and
groups in the crisis, “ but that will not stop us from finding
lasting solution to the decay in
our education sector. So, even
if it takes us another 10 years,
we will remain at home until the
right thing is done.”. Source Vanguard News

Ole! As if dey cared abt d rehabilitation of schools *Rubbish'