The Academic Staff Union of Universities on Tuesday raised an alarm over a plot to sabotage the interest of public universities in the country.
ASUU’s National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, at an event marking the 2024 ASUU’s Heroes Day in Abuja, also accused the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund of working relentlessly to destroy Nigeria’s public education system.
The union lamented the delay in the renegotiation of its 2009 agreement with the Federal Government, noting that despite several Memoranda of Understanding and Memoranda of Action, the ASUU-FGN 2009 Agreement was yet to be renegotiated and finalised.
He regretted that the situation had been further complicated by the enforcement of the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System in public universities, even after the Federal Executive Council announced plans to remove the system from tertiary education institutions.
Osodeke also expressed concern that the Federal Government was still unjustly withholding the union’s three and a half months’ salaries, in addition to arrears of wages, promotions, and the Earned Academic Allowance which remained outstanding.
Speaking further at the event, where ASUU honoured what it described as its “past and living heroes,” Osodeke commended the union’s members nationwide for their “courageous comradeship and sacrifices to the cause of our union, which forever resonate with the emancipation of Nigerian public university education and the suffering Nigerian people.”
He announced that the union would be offering PhD grants to some of its members across various public universities in the country. The grants, valued at N500,000 per recipient, would be awarded based on a rigorous assessment of proposals by experts in their respective disciplines.
“Comrades, like in the past, this year’s celebration of our heroes also takes place as we continue the struggle to rescue Nigeria’s public universities from the suffocating clutches of the World Bank and the IMF, whose determination to destroy and bury our public university system has not abated.
“It is rather lamentable that we are still struggling to compel the renegotiation of our 2009 Agreement with the federal government, twelve years after it should have been concluded, and after four rounds of failed negotiations.
“It is most disheartening and egregious that despite the several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Memoranda of Action (MoAs), the ASUU-FGN 2009 Agreement is yet to be renegotiated and finalised,” he said.
Osodeke alleged that at the state level, ASUU members “are still being punished for fighting for the interests of members and the university system.”
He added, “Let me re-emphasise that we stand with our members at Kogi State University, Lagos State University, Ebonyi State University, and Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University in their persecution for their principled support and solidarity in the struggle to defend the soul of public university education in Nigeria.
“As part of our Heroes Day celebration, this year, and in line with the NDC decision, the union will be offering PhD grants to some of our members across various public universities in the country.
“The grants, valued at five hundred thousand naira per recipient, will be based on the rigorous assessment of their proposals by experts in their respective disciplines.”
Those honoured at the event were Prof T. Uzodinma Nwala; Prof Bright Ekuerhare; Prof Oye Oyediran; Mallam Bashir Kurfi; Prof The Name Ikiddeh; Mr S.A. Fadipe; and Prof Sola Olukunle.
Others were Nasir Hussain; Tunde Oduleye; Prof Rasheed Abubakar; Akin Oyebode; Mustapha A. Danesi; A.T. Wins; and Dr Peter Ozo-son.
Deborah Tolu-Kolawole
