ASUU Strike: Government not sensitive to education -ASUU UNN Chairman

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that the Federal Government was not prepared to improve on the quality of education, hence it allowed the agreement it willingly entered with the body in 2009 to linger till date.

Chairman, ASUU UNN chapter, Dr. Ifeanyichukwu Abada, told Daily Times in an interview yesterday that ASUU resorted to the one week warning strike as they had exhausted almost every avenue to make government fulfill its pact.

Abada said, “The ongoing strike is based on the directive of ASUU NEC that we should embark on one week warning strike.

“We made efforts to resolve with government earlier but they remain unyielding because of their insensitivity to education, they failed to do the needful. So we were left with no option than to proceed on a one week warning strike and any failure to meet with our demands we will go on an indefinite strike,” he said.

He added that ASUU is not taking it lightly with government on the issues raised, stressing that the Union also wants universities to be exempted from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy.

Abada noted that the strike is total and comprehensive, “No lectures, No examinations,” he stressed.

He warned that the UNN chapter would not renege on the directive of the national body till government addresses all the issues raised.

A student of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who identified herself as Amarachi Okafor from the Department of Psychology urged Federal Government to ensure it meets the demands of the striking lecturers so as not to allow the strike snowball into an indefinite one.

She equally pleaded with ASUU to consider the plight of students who will be spending extra years as well as their parents who have been sponsoring them to graduate.

“I plead with ASUU to consider the interest of students so that the warning strike would not enter into an indefinite strike so as not to constitute a setback to our academics.

“I want FG to do everything possible to meet the demands of ASUU,“ she said.