The President of
Academic
Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Isa Fagge has said it is continuing
its nationwide strike on the advice of university students.
Speaking with PUNCH, the President of the union said
students
were tired of the incessant industrial actions by the university
lecturers due to the Federal Government’s failure to implement the
agreement it had with ASUU since 2009.
Fagge said the union had decided to heed the advice of the students to
continue the
strike until the Federal Government fully implemented the agreement.
“Our
students have come out to say they don’t want us to call off the strike
until the Federal Government answers us, because they don’t want us to
call off now and later we go back to strike again. So, we are heeding
the advice of our students,” he said.
On the complaint by the
Federal Government that it lacked the funds to implement the agreement,
Fagge said it was not all about money, noting that government did not
need funds to start implementing some parts of the agreement.
“There are issues and agreement they can implement without money. Why don’t they begin with those ones?” he asked.
He
added that it was unfortunate that the government had pulled out of
dialogue with ASUU, stating that the union would not be intimidated.
He
said, “Now, government has pulled out of the dialogue. We thought we
were the ones going on strike, but now government has also gone on
strike.”
The university lecturers who began an indefinite strike
on July 1 and have been demanding full implementation of the agreement
ASUU had with the Federal Government in 2009, which among other things
include the UNESCO-recommended 26 per cent budgetary allocation for
education. However, the government said it could not implement the
agreement, and is seeking re-negotiation.
The Minister of
Information, Labaran Maku, who gave government’s position on the strike
when he briefed journalists at the end of the weekly meeting of the
Federal Executive Council, said apart from security, education was one
of the sectors the government had expended a lot of money on.
