Education

ATBU ASUU embarks on peaceful protest, demands conclusion of 2009 renegotiation

On Tuesday, members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), Bauchi branch embarked on a peaceful protest within the Yelwa campus of the university.

The ASUU members who displayed placards with different inscriptions called on the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, conclude that the 2009 renegotiation has been delayed for 15 years now.

ASUU urged the government to avoid another round of strikes by paying all the earned allowances, releasing the withheld salaries, and paying promotion arrears, while it reiterated its total rejection of IPPIS.

ASUU further urged the government to “not establish unfounded public universities but provide adequate funding for the public universities.”

It also called on the government to “revert the illegal dissolution of university governing councils. We are tired of the government’s deception. The struggle continues.”

While addressing journalists at the main gate of the university at the end of the protest, the chairperson of ASUU, Dr Ibrahim Ibrahim, stressed that the protest was just to call the attention of the federal government to the need to ensure that it did the needful.

Represented by his vice, Mohammed Mohammed Inti, the ASUU chairperson said, “All we are saying here is that we don’t want another round of strike actions in the universities. The children are our children too. The intending strike action is avoidable.”

He wants the Federal Government to look into the demands of ASUU and evolve ways of solving them in order to ensure that the universities run according to the laws and regulations and have smooth academic situations.

The chairperson assured that ASUU members are open to amicably resolving the lingering problems but urged the government to exhibit the political will needed to bring the issues to a permanent end.

The ASUU members trekked from their secretariat within the campus to the main gate and back, chanting solidarity songs while displaying placards.

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