UNN-ASUU Says It’s Ready To Commence Strike

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), branch of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) has said their members are fully mobilized to begin another round of industrial action as soon as they get directive from its national headquarters in Abuja.

Chairman of ASSU in UNN, Comrade Christian Opata disclosed this in a statement issued on Thursday in Nsukka after the union congress.

He however, urged parents, students and the general public to prevail on the Federal Government to do the needful by fulfilling the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it entered with the union on December 23, 2020 to avert the impending nationwide strike.

The statement jointly signed by the chairman and his Secretary, Comrade Michael Nwokedi, and made available to African Examiner in Enugu said , the union was pleading with government not to push ASUU back to trenches.

It read thus: “Our children in public universities have suffered enough, government should do the needful and stop toying with academic future of Nigeria children.

“We beg Nigerians to plead with government not to push the union into going back to strike again,” he said.

The ASUU Chairman in UNN, expressed displeasure that agreements successive government entered with the union since 2009, none had been fully implemented.

He said “Government appears to be more at home in killing indigenous knowledge and discouraging local content, if not, why is it that government preferred Integrated Personnel Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS) developed abroad to University Transparency And Accountability Solution (UTAS) developed by Nigeria University lecturers.

“It is unfortunate that our public universities are now glorified secondary schools because of government negligence.

“Government is always in a hurry to establish new universities but not committed to equip and maintain existing ones to international standard,” he said.

The union alleged that, there had been plans by successive governments to make public universities inaccessible to the poor because the children of those in government, either studying in abroad or private universities in the country.

According to him, “Government want to throw on a system where the poor will never have access to tertiary education given the way and manner they shy away from their responsibilities in education.

“State Governments are also involved in this act of negligence. As some of them owes state universities staff up to four months arrears of salary.

Opata further expressed worry , why it must take protest, strike to sign agreement with government, another protest, strike and interventions by eminent Nigerians before government would show some sense of responsibility to honour agreement it willingly signed with the union.