Government Not Serious With Education — ASUU Chairman

Lecturers under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have continued to air their dissatisfaction with the government's show of unseriousness in the education sector of the country.

Chapters of the union across the country have held protests against the withheld salaries and the pro-rata basis on which the October salary was paid. 

Speaking to journalists on recent events, the Chairman of the UNN branch of ASUU, Comrade Christian Opata,  said the government was unserious about the issues surrounding education in Nigeria.

Opata stated that the genesis of the problem was the inability of the government to meet the agreement it signed with the union.  

“The issue is that the government is not being serious about the issue of education in Nigeria, because, one, they pleaded with us to honour the court, knowing that ASUU is a very patriotic and legal organisation; we are law-abiding citizens.

“Yes, we know that there is a subsisting court order, but if we wanted to disobey that court order, we had every right to disobey it because it is a question of our rights.

“The same government that is saying obey the court order, there are many court orders which they have not obeyed.

"And what is even the bone of contention is something that is legal- an agreement that was signed – and you reneged on it.

"You reneged on an agreement, and somebody you signed an agreement with is telling you to implement the agreement, and you turn around to punish the person saying the person is obdurate. Well, I don’t know where to situate that.

“So the disappointment even starts from the point of view that the government reneged on an agreement it signed willingly,” he said.

Opata expressed surprise at the productivity of lecturers despite the situation and the government's position.

“The issue is that many of them have been teaching, and I am even surprised that many of them are teaching happily. I thought that some of them would be grudging and even victimising students.

"But even to my knowledge, it has not happened within my university community. The students have been going to classes and having their exams. Some have even finished their exams.

“Tomorrow they shall continue because most of our members did not go for exams today because of this issue of our rally; we held a protest today.

"So that does not mean that we are on strike; they did it because it is part of the meeting being held.

“The issue is that, for now, they are teaching, our members are teaching. They are attending to students and their projects, even the postgraduate students (Masters and Ph.d),” he said.

On the union's probability of embarking on another industrial action due to the government's stance, the branch Chairman said; “No individual chairperson can decide that because it is only when we meet and we have a decision on that; no branch chairperson can speak on behalf of NEC.”

AllNews Nigeria reports that the Federal Government commenced full salary payment for lecturers for the month of November but refused to pay the arrears requested by ASUU.