We may not honour meetings with FG until agreements are implemented – ASUU
yarkarkara
By Peter Duru
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has warned that it might not honour any meeting with the Federal Government until there are commitments to implement previous agreements.
The union described as nauseating and unacceptable the government’s antics of summoning meetings with its leadership, and the resolutions reached at such meetings are not honoured.
Addressing the media at the Moses Adasu University, formally Benue State University Makurdi, on what it termed the consistent breach of trust and agreements by the government, the Zonal Coordinator, ASUU Nsukka Zone, Christian Opata, cautioned that a huge storm was already gathering over government’s inaction and “if unchecked would metamorphose to a crisis of unquantifiable magnitude.”
The Zonal Coordinator pointed out that the union had been in dialogue with the government on the same issues for over a decade, during which “agreements were reached, timelines were given, but each time, the government would brazenly and unashamedly jettison the agreements.”
He said, having given the government ample time to show some element of sincerity, seriousness, and display some level of humanity, ASUU was left with no option but to put the government and the public on notice of its resolve to return to the trenches.
The union noted that the bones of contention were legion, but prominent among them are the renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement between ASUU and the Federal Government, the gradual and purposeful erosion of university autonomy, and the tactical withdrawal from the principles of collective bargaining.
“Others are the refusal to revitalize public universities, non-payment of withheld and outstanding salaries of our members for a work they have done, non-payment of promotion arrears to staff, the withholding of third party deduction, the non-payment of the 25-35 percent wage increase, the starving of universities of funds and the attempt to railroad our members into slavery in the name of loan; the controversial Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund, TISSF.”
The union also decried the government’s waste of taxpayers’ money and man-hours of prominent Nigerians when it sets up committees to address issues with the union, only to jettison the resolutions reached.
“If not, how do we explain that from the Wale Babalakin to the Munzali Jibril, Nimi Briggs and now the Yayale Ahmed Committee, the recommendations of these committees of eminent Nigerians, chosen by the same government, were treated with ignominy.
“We are almost losing count of the number of Memoranda of Understanding and Memoranda of Action signed between the us and the government.
“Under the current administration, the renegotiated Agreement of the Yayale Ahmed-led Renegotiation Committee was submitted to the government in February 2025, after some preliminary challenges, largely occasioned by the government and its agents.
“Unfortunately, nothing meaningful has been done on the report since then. If the government is deliberately testing our will, it is time for us to respond.
“The antics of summoning the union to meetings that the resolutions reached at such meetings would not be honoured are not only nauseating but unacceptable.
“We are aware that the government is deliberate in its actions, and we may be forced not to honour any meeting they summon until they show commitment. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine,” it noted.
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