By Gami Tadanyigbe
Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has accused the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF of working relentlessly to destroy Nigeria’s public education system.
This is as the union lamented the delay in the renegotiation of its 2009 agreement with the federal government, noting specifically that the “despite the several Memoranda of Understanding,MoUs and Memoranda of Action,MoAs, the ASUU-FGN 2009 Agreement is yet to be renegotiated and sighted. “
President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, speaking on Tuesday, at ASUU Heroes Day 2024-2025 ceremony, at the union’s headquarters in Abuja, regretted that the situation has been further complicated with the enforcement and persistence of Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System,
IPPIS on the public universities even with the pronouncement of the Federal Executive Council ,FEC, to exit the tertiary education institutions.
Osodeke also regretted that the federal government was also still unjustly withholding the union’s three and half months salaries besides arrears of wages award, promotions,adding that Earned Academic Allowance,EAA, was also still outstanding.
Speaking further at the event where ASUU honoured those it described as its “past and living heroes”, Osodeke commend the union’s members nationwide for their “‘courageous comradeship and sacrifices to the cause of our union which forever resonates with the emancipation of the Nigerian public university education and the suffering Nigerian people. “
He said the union will be offering Ph.D grants to some of its members across the various public universities in the country.
The grants which he explained,would be N500, 000 per recipient, were based on rigorous assessment of members’ proposals by experts in their various disciplines.
Hear him:”Comrades, like in the past, this year’s celebration of our Heroes is also taking place as we continue with the struggle to rescue the Nigeria’s public universities from the suffocating clutches of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) whose determination to destroy and bury our public university system has not abated.
“It is rather lamentable that we are still on the struggle to compel the renegotiation of our 2009 Agreement with the Federal Government twelve years since it should have been concluded and four circles of renegotiation thereafter.
“It is most disheartening and egregious that despite the several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and Memoranda of Action (MoAs), the ASUU-FGN 2009 Agreement is yet to be renegotiated and sighted.
“The situation has been further complicated with the enforcement and persistence of IPPIS on the public universities even with the pronouncement of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to exit the tertiary education institutions thereof.
“Not to be forgotten is our three and half mouths salaries which is still unjustly withheld. The arrears of wages award, promotions, arrears etc. and Earned Academic Allowance (EAA) are also still outstanding.”
He alleged that at the state level,ASUU members” are still been punished for fighting for the interest of members and the university system. “