By Chukwuka Ugokwe :
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has called on the Federal Government to urgently address all outstanding issues with the Union to avert looming industrial action.
Prof Kingsley Ubaorji, Chairman, ASUU, Nnamdi Azikiwe University NAU stated this at its Secretariat during a news conference shortly before staging a peaceful protest march round the university.
Members of the Union displayed placards with various inscriptions including,”Lecturers dignity matters, FG allow us breathe”,Blame FG for another long strike”,FG honour Mimi Briggs agreement”,Pay us fairly, stop suffocating university lecturers”
The Chairman said that they took a critical look at the worsening living and working conditions in Universities and the nation at large.
He enumerated the outstanding issues to include: implementation of Prof Nimi Briggs report, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of over three months of withheld salaries, payment of earn academic allowance as well as release of unpaid salaries on sabbatical, adjunct due to IPPIS.
“If the FGN sets it’s priorities right, all these could be resolved amicably without any industrial action. But the truth is that the government appears to have been treating these issues with some fun, which our union finds unacceptable”
Contributing, the ASUU Owerri Zone Coordinator, Prof Dennis Aribodor, noted that the union had severally called for proper funding of the nation’s varsities rather than proliferation, arguing that they have the capacity to run even two streams.
He insisted that proliferation of public universities without adequate funding and infrastructure does not augur well for the system.
