Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has denied claims by the Nigerian government that fresh demands were made in a letter written to the government after the November 4 meeting with the president.

On Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, the chairman of the University of Lagos’ chapter of the union, Karo Ogbinaka, said that the content of the letter writing to the government was within the ambience of the agreement earlier reached.

Ogbinaka insisted that the government had not acted on the agreement reached in the November 4 meeting  with President Goodluck Jonathan.

“They said they will release 200 billion Naira (about 1.3 billion dollars) in 2013 for the funding of universities and we only have few weeks to go and they have not released the money. When it comes to implementation, government is always having problem,” he stated.

The lecturers are also demanding that the government should pay them the arrears of four months – the period they have been on strike- and the university lecturer also pointed out that the non-victimisation clause was part of the 2009 agreement.

‘Government Is Insincere’

He described the statement by the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, demanding that all vice chancellors and academic staff of federal universities resume duties on December 4 or face the chances of being sacked, as an insincere statement on the part of the government.

The union leader claimed that as much as students had been affected in the five month strike period, the lecturers are too.

“Festus Iyayi died because he was travelling to see how the strike issue could be resolved,” he said, refuting claims that some students have taken to social ills because they were made to sit at home.

“Any student that is bad is bad. Letting the student come to school and come out half-baked is not the best either. There are graduates without job and they are not bad.

Losing four months will not make somebody half-baked but putting somebody consistently in a system that is bad will make the person a victim of a bad education system,” he stressed.

The University of Lagos’ lecturer insisted that the government could not say they lacked finance to fund the agreement, as it was not captured in the budget.

“Was the money given to Golden eaglets after they won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the budget of 2013?

“The only problem ASUU has now is that the government is insincere and we are saying that we cannot continue this way,” he added.

Dismissing claims that the union was bullying the government, he stressed that “any government that cannot do basic things is no longer a government and should be made to do what it is supposed to do.



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