By Our Reporter
From all indications the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASSU, may proceed on its earlier planned strike action after what seemed like a failure on the part of the Federal Government to meet its demands.
Recall that the Union had shelved its planned strike action following government’s persuasion for negotiations with the Union. Consequently, the Union had given the FG one month ultimatum within which to settle all grievances. But, close to one month, the Union has cried out that no meaningful discussions have been held.
ASSU’s President, Professor Christopher Piwuna, regrets that the FG has refused to take advantage of the window of opportunity offered to address the Union’s demands in order to avert a strike action, despite pleas by well meaning citizens and stake holdcrs in the Nigerian education sector.
“The Union said the one- month window given to the government for renegotiation was intended to allow for a conducive atmosphere for genuine engagement in good faith.
The communique partly reads: “It is now the responsibility of the government to take advantage of this opportunity to quickly resolve all the issues, in order to keep our children in school.”
According to Piwuna, government had continued to pay more interest in the trivial matter, while ignoring the major demands. The union maintained that the government has made some adjustments in the non-monetary aspects of the negotiations, while leaving out the unresolved salary and conditions of service, which remain the sore point of the matter.
Piwuna expressed his disappointment at the prerogative of the government and its officials penchant to misrepresent offers, offering partial implementation of agreement, including the partial payment of promotion arrears since 2017 as well as the over flogged issues of third party deductions.
The Union described the government’ s actions as half-baked, which, according to them are mere ‘confident boosters’, aimed at changing the narrative in their favour, and not solve the problems.
The NEC, however, lamented that the government has continued to treat education as a commercial good that must be self-sustaining, rather than as a social good that guarantees sustainable national development.
The Union berated the government for not giving education the priority it deserved, despite the huge increment in both federal and state government’s yearly allocation.
“The Federal Government received N3.42 trillion in 2022 and N4.65 trillion in 2024, an increase of over 70 per cent. Similarly, the State government’s allocations rose from N3.92 trillion in 2022 to N5.81 trillion in 2024, an increase of about 62 per cent, with no corresponding increase in allocation to the education sector”, Piwuna noted.
The Union surmised then lingering crisis in the education sector to a lack of political will rather than economic incapacity.
With reports from Daily Independent