“As far as we are concerned, federal goverment has delivered nothing to our members.”- ASUU

The hopes of Nigerian Federal Universities students to resume academic activities this year has been dashed again as the Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that it is yet to reach any agreement with the federal government.

ASUU said that it has not reached any agreement with the federal government that is strong enough for the body to end it’s ongoing strike.

The body (ASUU), also debunked claims made by the Minister of Labour, Dr Chris Ngige, that seven out of nine demands raised by ASUU had been met by the government.

Speaking in an interview with Vanguard, the national president of ASUU, Professor Biodun Oguyemi said that the claims made by Dr Chris Ngige were false.

He said, “As far as we are concerned, nothing has been delivered to our members and our members don’t want empty promises. Let us take the issues one after the other.

“The withheld salaries of our members which is between four to eight months has not been paid, if paid, accounts of our members would have been credited. Same for Earned Academic Allowances, yet to be paid.

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“Visitation panels has not been constitutes for the Universities, if that is done, Nigerians would have heard the names of panel members as announced by the government.

“The proliferation of Universities by state governments has not been addressed. The renegotiation of the 2009 agreement has not started. The 2019 Memorandum of Action has not been implemented.

READ ALSO: Breaking- Federal Government Rejects ASUU’s Condition for Ending Strike.

Professor Oguyemi said that target beneficiaries stated in their demands are yet to see any concrete action being taken.

“So, on which of these issues has the target beneficiaries seen any action being taken? We are getting to understand the way people in government work.

“When they are still discussing with you, they will go down and tell people what has not been done. Their intention is to paint ASUU as the aggressor.

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“Which of the issues here can anybody say the ball is in ASUU’s court? Are we the ones to pay our withheld salaries and allowances? Are we the ones to set up visitation panels?

He further said that the body does not feel threatened over reported warning by the government that it will invoke labour laws if an agreement is yet to be reached by the two parties.

He added, “We are ready for discussions if they invite us. The onus of Universities reopening lies with the government. We go to meetings we invited to.

“They promised that we would meet some days ago and they said they write to inform us, we waited in vain for their invite. Nothing came.”

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The onus of universities reopening lies with God, continue praying hard that a concrete agreement will be reached between FG and ASUU soon. Feel free to leave your comments in the comment section below.