About six months after the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off its last strike in 2022, the union has said the federal government has not addressed most of the issues surrounding the strike.
OsunDaily News reports that this is as the union disclosed that the federal government is yet to address most of its demands including the payment of salary backlogs.
The ASUU national president, Emmanuel Osodeke, said it was unfortunate that the federal government does not have any regard for the Nigerian education system.
Osodeke told Channels Television that the union members are struggling to meet up with the academic calendar despite the government’s position.
He advanced that “As far as this present government is concerned, once the strike is over, the issue is resolved unknown to them that a strike is a symptom of a problem. They have abandoned the problem. Since we called off the strike based on a court directive, not a single meeting has been called. Not a kobo has been paid.”
It was learnt that part of the union’s agitations include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
The ASUU boss however commended the government when he commented about the approval N320.3 billion 2023 intervention for public tertiary institutions.
He pointed out that “It (N320bn fund) is a good development, this is part of what we struggle for in 1994, it is our struggle, but there are issues we need to sort out.
“When you check the allocation of about N1.2 billion to universities and others, you find out that the total for all the universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education come to just about N186 billion allocated out of about N320, leaving a balance of N132 billion that has not been accounted for. What are we using that N132 billion which is 41% of the total amount of money? Is it for bureaucracy or for what?
“This is what has been happening in TETFund and I think there is a need to examine what exactly is happening at TETFund. The idea of this TETFund when it was negotiated by ASUU was that this money will come and be distributed to the universities, not keeping 41% for whatever purpose.
“I think we need a redistribution of this fund to ensure that it accounts for 90% of what has been approved to go to universities, polytechnic and not kept as bureaucracy or whatever. You need to tell the public what TETFund is doing with the balance of N132 billion.”
