The embattled lecturers of the University of Ibadan (UI), on Monday, November 28, 2022, grounded academic activities as they embarked on a peaceful protest against the collapse of university education by the Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressive Congress (APC) government.
Earlier, the leadership of the UI branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), informed their members not to teach today, enjoining them to physically participate in the protest.
The aggrieved lecturers who protested within the campus were armed with banners and placards with different inscriptions including, “Education is a right”, “End insecurity now”, “Buhari, pay eight months’ salaries of universities’ lecturers”, “Employment is a right”, “No to poor living conditions”, “Review the minimum wage now” and “University education is the sure way to national development”,
In his address, the Chairman of ASUU-UI, Professor Ayoola Akinwole said that the protest was against the victimization of ASUU members by the Federal Government and its agents.
He said, “Recall that ASUU embarked on strike on 14 February 2022 to get the Government to implement the Memorandum of Action (MOA) signed with the Union on December 2020. This MOA included: the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, payment of outstanding Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and withheld salaries of 2020 and the release of the white paper by the visitation panel to the universities and inter-university centres, among other issues.”
Ayoola said, “Since 23 December 2020, these items of the MOA had not been honoured and implemented by the government, leading to the declaration of a strike action by ASUU on 14 February 2022.”
“The Government, rather than swinging into action to resolve the issues, embarked on playing politics with the lives of Nigerians and moved quickly to stop the payment of ASUU-members’ salaries for seven months, leading to starvation and death of some members of the Union”, he added.
He explained that “the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, intervened in the matter to broker peace between the Executive arm of the Government and ASUU. This intervention by the Speaker and the agreement emanating therefrom led to the suspension of the strike on 14 October 2022.
“However, despite reaching an agreement with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which led to the suspension of the strike, none of the items on the said agreement has been implemented. The agreement with the Speaker included the following: “that the government is going to sign the new salary package, payment of the withheld salaries from March to October 2022, payment of the withheld third-party deductions, including Check-off dues from March to October 2022 and non-victimization of ASUU members who took part in the strike.
According to him, the protest has become necessary due to the union’s conviction that the Federal Government is on a mission to destroy public universities through inadequate funding, and through its war against ASUU.
He claimed, “This war against ASUU by the Government and the Nigerian elites has manifested in various ways such as violation and repudiation of all extant agreements reached with Union, forcing the union into strike, prolonging the strike by its inaction and victimization of ASUU members for embarking on strike, which they were forced into by the negligence and inaction by the government.”
The ASUU Chairman stated, “In addition to the foregoing, ASUU members are being treated differently from members of other unions that also embarked on strike to press home their demands. For instance, the members of the Research Institutes embarked on a twelve-month strike and their salaries were paid throughout the period they were on strike. On the contrary, the salaries of ASUU members were stopped a month into the strike and members were expected to starve to death. This is evidence of double standard, inconsistency and selective treatment meted out to ASUU members by the Government.
“Similarly, Government has surreptitiously appropriated funds belonging to ASUU and its members. For instance, the government deducted check-off dues for March, September and October 2022 without remitting the same to the Union. This was also the case in 2020 when about three months’ ASUU check-off dues were deducted by the Government without remitting to the Union. The only explanation for this is that the government is hell-bent on destroying ASUU to have the freedom to destroy public universities.
“As a Union of intellectuals, it is our historical responsibility to protect the public universities from collapse and fight for the interest of our members as well as the interests of the Nigerian students. All these considerations necessitate today’s protest.”
