ASUU begins indefinite strike

Lecturers in public universities on Monday began an indefinite strike
over Federal Government's refusal to implement agreement reached with
the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The ASUU National President, Dr. IsaFagge, said in Lagos on Monday
that the decision to embark on the action was reached during the
National Executive Council meetingof the union held at Olabisi
Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State on Monday.
He spoke with newsmen via the telephone after the Chairman, University
of Lagos chapter of ASUU,Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, had told journalists that
the strike would betotal.
According to Fagge, the strike will be "comprehensive, total and indefinite.''
"The strike starts today (Monday) and it is going to last for as long
as the Federal Government wants it," he said.
He explained that the union embarked on the strike because the
government had reneged on the agreement it reached with ASUU before
the lecturers suspended a similar action in February 2012.
"The Federal Government has refused to implement some of the issues
contained in a 2009 agreement it had with us," he said.
Fagge added that the government had also reneged on the Memorandum of
Understanding it entered into with the union in December 2011.
"Before now, there has been this issue of the implementation of the
key issues contained in the 2009 agreement we entered into with the
Federal Government.
"We have had several meetings and deliberations to let government
understand why theseissues must be resolved but it is like the more we
meet and deliberate, the messier the issue gets.
"One of the issues that needed to be addressed was basically that of
the academic earned allowance.
"This earned allowance, and other issues, had dragged on until
government then agreed to write an MOU with the union.
"But as we speak, there has been nothing to show that government was
committed to an MOU it willingly wrote to better the university
sector.
"It is in this regard that we are embarking on an indefinite strike," he said.
燜agge said that having waited patiently for the government to honour
the agreement, the ASUU decided to meet, deliberate and come up with
the action.
Also, Ogbinaka said government's penchant for reneging on agreements
was not acceptable to the union.
He said that government entered into the MOU with ASUU after the union
suspended its strike two anda half years ago.
Ogbinaka who admitted that government had implemented the 70 years
retirement age for professors and the pension commission for
university workers, noted that government had not been forthcoming on
the earned allowance demand of the lecturers.
"I want to say that not all lecturers are entitled to this allowance,
but as we speak, not a single lecturer under the aforementioned
categories has received any such allowance.
"What we are demanding as the earned allowance is not more than N12,
500 per person, yet government is saying it cannot afford such.
"Government was actually thinking of the cost implication of
everything but after much deliberation, government agreed to sign the
MoU and said it had set aside N100bn to take care of all the burning
issues.
"However, government came back to us and pleaded for a reduction and
we decided to step the cost down to 80 per cent. That not enough, it
also appealed for another reduction to 50 per cent.
"This 50 per cent, government said, will be a one off payment; that it
was from that 50 per cent that we shall take care of everything,
including the earned allowance.
"This did not go down well with us and so we decided to meet and take
the decision we have just taken," he said.
According to him, the Nigerian tertiary education sector is where it
is because of inadequate funding.
He said that one of the reasons whythere were no foreign scholars in
the system was because of the poor wages.
"When we agitate about earned allowance, we are also using it as a
means of attracting foreign scholars so it is not all about our
personal interest.
"We are also using it to address theissue of brain drain in the
system. As it were, our best brains are all drifting into industries
and other sectors that will pay them better, rather than ploughing
back into the academic sector.
"To us, it is all about looking at a bigger picture and putting things
in the right place,'' he said.
The union leader said that the decision to embark on the strike was
painful but that there was no going back until government took a
positive step to address their demands.