Students Don’t Want Us To End Strike – ASUU President

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has
said it is continuing its nationwide strike on the
advice of university students.
In a telephone interview with
SUNDAY PUNCH, the President of
the union, Dr. Isa Fagge, said
students were tired of the incessant industrial
actions by the university lecturers due to the
Federal Government's failure to implement the
agreement it had with ASUU since 2009.
Fagge said the union had decided to heed the
advice of the students to continue the strike until
the Federal Government fully implemented the
agreement.
"Our students have come out to say they don't
want us to call off the strike until the Federal
Government answers us, because they don't want
us to call off now and later we go back to strike
again. So, we are heeding the advice of our
students," he said.
On the complaint by the Federal Government that
it lacked the funds to implement the agreement,
Fagge said it was not all about money, noting
that government did not need funds to start
implementing some parts of the agreement.
"There are issues and agreement they can
implement without money. Why don't they begin
with those ones?" he asked.
He added that it was unfortunate that the
government had pulled out of dialogue with
ASUU, stating that the union would not be
intimidated.
He said, "Now, government has pulled out of the
dialogue. We thought we were the ones going on
strike, but now government has also gone on
strike."
Last Thursday, university students under the
auspices of the National Association of Nigerian
Students reportedly staged a peaceful protest in
Ado-Ekiti and flayed the Federal Government for
failing to honour the agreement it had with ASUU
since 2009.
The students, who were from public universities,
threatened to disrupt activities of private
universities, adding that the government was not
bothered about their plight because children of
government officials were studying either in
private universities or studying overseas.
The university lecturers began an indefinite strike
on July 1 and have been demanding full
implementation of the agreement ASUU had with
the Federal Government in 2009, which among
other things include the UNESCO-recommended
26 per cent budgetary allocation for education.
However, the government said it could not
implement the agreement, and is seeking re-
negotiation.
The Federal Government, last Wednesday,
accused ASUU of being unrealistic by continuing
its nationwide strike and asked it to rethink its
demands, considering other commitments
government has.
The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who
gave government's position on the strike when he
briefed journalists at the end of the weekly
meeting of the Federal Executive Council, said
apart from security, education was one of the
sectors the government had expended a lot of
money on.