The Students’ Union of the University of Ibadan, on Monday, declared support for the Academic Staff Union of Universities over the ongoing strike embarked upon by the lecturers.
This came after ASUU had, on Monday, announced an extension of its strike by eight weeks over the failure of the Federal Government to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action within the four-week warning strike.
A press release, jointly signed by the President, General Secretary and Public Relations Officer of the UI Students’ Union; Adewole Yinka, Bamidele Taiwo and Olalekan Michael Ajibola, respectively, was made available to The PUNCH.
The Union declared its unreserved support for the striking academic staff, stating that it was committed to a better education system.
The Union stressed how distressing it was distressing to observe that the warning strike of ASUU had produced no result in one month because the government had shown no sign of acceding to the request of ASUU.
The statement read in part, “the Academic Staff Union of Universities declared a four-week warning strike on February 14, to ensure that the Government meets their demands. The fulfilment of the 2009 agreement, the revitalization of the University System, the payment of earned allowances, and the move from IPPIS to UTAS as a payment method are among the requests.
“However, it is distressing to observe that the warning strike has produced no results in one month, as the FGN has shown no sign of acceding to ASUU’s requests.
“For this reason, the disagreement between the FGN and ASUU has escalated into a major source of concern, with Nigerian students facing the brunt of the consequences.
“As a result, the University of Ibadan Students’ Union, which is committed to a better educational system, declares an unreserved support for ASUU, given its commitment to the development and improvement of tertiary institutions.
“Let us remind the FGN that qualitative education is the leverage for national development and that underfunding the system or ignoring lecturers’ welfare comes with highly devastating academic consequences. That is why we consider the FGN’s indifference to ASUU’s demands to be completely unacceptable.”
The Union further asked that the Federal Government should prioritise the demands of ASUU, stating that it would take stern measures should the government choose to ignore their appeal.
“Hence, we, together with other stakeholders, ask the FGN to give full priority to ASUU and meet its demands as soon as possible, so that classes can resume, as it appears that the sector of the country most affected is the Nigerian student body.
“If the FGN, however, chooses to ignore this appeal, University of Ibadan students would take certain stern but rational measures to demand that the FGN honours its agreement with ASUU,” the statement read further.
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