ASUU VOWS TO CONTINUE STRIKE UNTILL FG AGREES TO DEMAMDS

Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Benin Zone, yesterday,
expressed the resolve of members to stay at home for up to 10 years
than call off the current strike action embarked upon by the union
five weeks ago, if the Federal Government continues to shy away from
the agreement it reached with the union in 2009.
President Goodluck Jonathan had Tuesday, approved the implementation
of the recommendation of the government committee on repositioning of
federal and state universities.
But the Benin Zone of ASUU described as a shame, government's refusal
to meet its endof the Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, entered with
ASUU in 2009, wherein government promised to release N100 billion
immediately out of the N500billion it agreed to pay.
The Zonal Coordinator, Benin zone of ASUU, Dr. Ighalo Sunny, said
yesterday, that part of the MOU signed in 2012 between the Federal
Government and the union was that government will increase the yearly
budgetary allocation to the educational sector to 26 per cent among
others.
He said: "It is sad that government has failed to fulfill the
agreement on the universities. The N500 billion is not to pay
lecturers but to fund infrastructural decay in Nigerian universities.
What that means is that government has not shown readiness to
implementsame. For us, the solution is simple, honour and implement
fully the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement. We believe that the 2009 agreement
is the antidote to the debilitating crisis bedevilling Nigerian
universities."
Describing the rumour that ASUU will soon call-off the strike as a
folktale, he noted that the union appreciates the interest shown by
stakeholders and groups in the crisis, " but that will not stop us
from finding lasting solution to the decay in our education sector.
So, even if it takes us another 10 years, we will remain at home until
the right thing is done."