FG yet to answer us — ASUU

THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed deep disappointment at Federal Government for not “meeting” any of its demands after several months they have both resolved to  a peaceful path in resolving their age-long differences.

The president of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed the disappointment in an interview with Nigerian Tribune when asked about the update concerning their pending issues with the Federal Government.

ASUU in the recent past had consistently threatened to embark on nationwide strike if government continued not to honour their agreements while the government on the other hand had been coming forward in a way to douse the tension.

According to Osodeke, government has not done anything up till now apart from the renegotiation team it constituted recently to discuss afresh with ASUU.

ASUU said it had since concluded its own part of the renegotiation assignment with the team, awaiting feedback from the government’s representatives.

According to Osodeke, ASUU has presented its positions on each of the issues in contention, leaving the rest to the government’s representatives to return to their principals and then come back to us for feedback to enable us to know where we are both standing.

“It has been about two months now, the government’s team has not come back to us, let alone sign a new deal and the implication of this development is that the political class does not care about any development for the public university,” he stressed.

Read Also: Tinubu mourns victims of Zamfara school fire

According to him, before this government, once in a while, previous governments would do one or little thing positively for the sector, but nothing is forthcoming from the current government.

“He pointed out, “No single issue has been permanently resolved by this government since assumption which is more than a year now out of all issues about our agreements.

“So, in education we can boldly say as a union that nothing has changed.

“We are still telling the same old story, whereas, the rich keep sending their children abroad to study and returning after studies to take up the so-called lucrative positions, especially in public establishments leaving the children of the poor to continue to suffer.

Osodeke said this narrative must change if Nigeria is desirous of genuine progress as a country.”

He, however, noted that ASUU members would meet soon to decide on the next line of action.