ASUU threatens total shutdown of varsities over poor welfare package

By Steve Oko

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has threatened a total and indefinite shutdown of public universities in Nigeria over poor welfare of its members.

ASUU members who staged a peaceful protests Tuesday at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), accused the Federal Government of insensitivity over the plight of lecturers.

The protesters who chanted solidarity songs and displayed placards with various inscriptions, challenged Government to justify its proposal to increase the pay package of political office holders but stagnate the salary of lecturers for 15 years.

They wondered why Government had refused to implement the 2009 agreement with ASUU 15 years after the deal, adding that Government has also refused to implement the recommendations of various committees it set up to review the 2009 agreement.

Speaking during the protest, Chairman of ASUU, MOUAU chapter, Professor Chike Ugwuene, said that the current economic realities had made the 2009 renegotiated agreement which recommended less than N500,000.00 as take-home for a Professor at bar, a mockery, arguing that the recommendation is far less than the African average of N1.5 million.

ASUU also demanded the released of N150 billion revalidation fund to universities as captured in the 2025 budget.

Other grievances of ASUU according to Professor Ugwuene include non payment of three and half months arrears of lecturers during the 2022 strike; and the proliferation of public and private universities while the existing ones are not adequately funded.

ASUU also rejected the Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund, dismissing it as a scam.

The union argued that it made no sense for Government to be offering loan to its members when the same Government was owing them.

Speaking during the rally, former ASUU Coordinator,  Owerri Zone, Professor Uzochukwu Onyebinama, recounted the  ordeals of lecturers in the face of the worsening economic hardship, lamenting that their members are finding it increasingly difficult to cope.

He said that Nigeria Government had made lecturing job unattractive and an object of caricature.

The ex-ASUU boss queried the rationale behind the decision of Government to pay N500,000 to a Professor at bar, the same figure, he said “is the entry point” salary of medical personnel.

Dr Celestina Ogazie, a Reverend Sister, could not hold her emotions as she went on her knees begging Government to heed the pleas of lecturers and end their miseries.

Some of the inscriptions on the placards read:”A professor’s salary is less than N500,000.; “The light in the tunnel is off, government pay us”, among others.

The protests ended with a prayer session conducted by Professor Marble Onwuka who prayed God to prevail on Government to address the grievances of ASUU.

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