University lecturers are heading for another strike over a renegotiated 2009 agreement with the Federal Government, it was studied at the weekend.
There are indications that the National Executive Board of the University Academic Staff Union (ASUU) will meet on Feb. 14 to review the implementation of some components of the agreement and decide on industrial action.
The committee that renegotiated the deal was led by Prof. Munzali Jibril, Pro-Rector, Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State and Chairman, Pro-Rector Committee of the Federal University.
An ASUU leader, who chose not to be named, said there had been no progress on the deal since it was renegotiated last May.
ASUU President Prof Emmanuel Osodeke dismissed President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement as a mere promise that the Federal Government is committed to meeting ASUU’s demands to prevent the next round of attacks.
Osodeke said the call for understanding by the president was just a promise they had heard before.
The president of ASUU, in an interview with The Nation in Abuja, said most of the union’s demands had not been met by the Federal Government.
Osodeke said: “We have heard him so many times and nothing happened. Except when we start seeing something concrete being done the plea will just be like any other plea we have heard; mere promises.”
He added: “If they are correct, no problem. But, are they correct? Is he correct that there is no fund? Are we not seeing things that are covering billions of naira? Bailing out banks, and others and having multiple travels by governors, principal officers of government – all consuming dollars?
“If education is really the priority of this government, would we be saying there is no fund? How many countries in the world allocate five or six per cent of their budget to education?
“Nigeria is the country that allocates the lowest budget to education. That is the problem because they don’t believe in it because their children are not in this country.
”If their children were here and probably in public universities today, they would not be treating education like this. In some countries, they give 25 to 30 per cent of their budget allocation to education, but Nigeria is six per cent.
He also accused the government of failing to implement University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS) — a payment platform developed by university lecturers despite passing an integrity test conducted by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) last year.
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