The academic staff Union of universities, Ibadan Zone, on Thursday stated that members of the Union were getting impatient and unhappy over the poor implementation of the agreements it reached with the federal government of Nigeria.
ASUU tasked President Bola Tinubu and the governors of the southwest States to rise up and prevent bandits from penetrating into the zone by ensuring that kidnapping and mass abductions are tamed immediately.
Speaking at a press conference organized by the Ibadan Zone of the union comprising University of Ibadan, Ibadan, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Osun State University, Osogbo, Kwara State University, Malete and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education, Oyo, the Zonal Coordinator, Professor Biodun Olaniran frowned at the non-implementation of the agreements by the Oyo state government in LAUTECH, and Emmanuel Alayande University of Education and Kwara State government in Kwara state university (KWASU)
He commended the visitors and management of the University of Ibadan, Osun State University, and University of Ilorin, who have started partial implementation of the salary components of the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement.
According to ASUU, “the Tinubu-led administration is not showing enough sincerity at addressing the crisis in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector. The non-implementation of the 2025 FGN-ASUU agreement is an invitation to industrial unrest in Nigerian universities. Despite the efforts of the Union to continue to keep the universities open for our students, the inaction of the FGN towards the full implementation with the Union could jeopardise the peace and industrial harmony in our universities. Since the government signed the agreement, it has only implemented to varying degrees the financial components, such as Consolidated Academic Tool Allowances (CATA) and Professorial Allowances (PA), but leaving out component like Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) unattended to. As of today, both the States and Federal governments currently have not paid several components of the agreement for up to four (4) months.”
“Furthermore, the Union observed that the Federal government has also failed to inaugurate the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) that is expected to shield the agreement from bureaucratic bottlenecks and give room for smooth implementation and actualization of the signed agreement”
ASUU accused the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, of turning the signed agreement into a political campaign while paying less attention to how to genuinely resolve the underlying issues that will effectively bring lasting solutions to the lingering implementation crisis.
On the state of insecurity, ASUU challenged federal and state governments in the southwest to rise up to prevent rising spate of criminal kidnapping and abductions.
ASUU noted that it is “very concerning is the state of insecurity in the country which has shifted from the North-East, North-West, North Central and to become a national malaise, and now in the South-west”.
Professor Olaniran stated that “there can be no better alternative to development than human development, wasting human lives by way of banditry and kidnapping is the highest form of wastage that may ultimately ruin a nation”.
“The recent kidnapping of teachers and pupils in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State is a reminder of the perilous state to which Nigerians are exposed which the leadership at the national and state governments must rise up actively to address instead of unrewarding commiseration messages. Embracing economic policies without human face is not only despicable but condemnable. The much celebrated removal of subsidy by FGN with little or no palliatives to cushion the effects on the masses shows the insensitivity of the governments to plight of the people. The economic advantages or benefits of subsidy are disproportionately given to state governments at the disadvantage of the masses that are recipients of the consequences of obnoxious policies.
Ends
