Members of the Academic Staff Union of
Universities, Benin zone, on Friday threatened that the ongoing strike
embarked upon by the union could be prolonged if President Goodluck
Jonathan repeated the mistakes of previous administrations.
Addressing journalists at the University
of Benin main campus, Coordinator of the zone and member of the
National Executive Council of ASUU, Dr. Sunny Ighalo, said the strike
could be indefinite if government remained insensitive to lecturers’
plight and refused to honour the agreement it had with the union.
Giving an update on the three-week
strike, Ighalo said this time around, the action would be total and
comprehensive in all Nigerian universities.
Ighalo said members would not shift
ground except government honoured the agreement it entered into with
ASUU, adding that members would not yield to government’s threat of
no-work-no-pay rule.
He said, “It is clear that the Jonathan
government has not learnt anything from the mistakes of previous
governments in Nigeria that are notoriously known for fragrant disregard
for agreements, due process and rule of law.
“Government must be compelled to find a
solution to the brain drain issue and infrastructure decay in the
system. This is what this ongoing strike action is all about.
All these problems are a product of
underfunding and deliberate neglect of our universities by the
government. The 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement is meant to arrest these
problems and restore our universities to the path of progress and
reckoning.
“We are on strike for the same reasons
of government insensitivity, unwillingness and inability to keep and
implement the agreement it entered with ASUU.
“The major source of problem in
Nigeria’s universities has been government’s gross underfunding of the
universities and lack of basic infrastructure including research
equipment for sound academic learning and relevant studies by students
and lecturers.”
Ighalo said the strike was aimed at
rescuing the country’s universities from further decline and urged
stakeholders, including parents, to hold the Federal Government
accountable for the “wasteful period the exercise would last.”
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