ASUU Raises Alarm Over Government’s Failed Promises

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed concern about the President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s failure to resolve the persisting issues that prompted the union to go on strike last year.

Naija News reports that the union’s National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed displeasure with the government while addressing a press conference in Umuahia, Abia State, on Wednesday, following the National Executive Council meeting held at Niger Delta University over the weekend.

Osodeke said, “The union undertook a comprehensive review of the state of its engagements with Federal and State Governments on how to reposition Nigeria’s public universities for a global reckoning by arresting the worsening living and working conditions in the universities and the nation at large.

“NEC was seriously alarmed by reports of the increasing number of Nigerian academics who have died or are currently nursing life-threatening ailments as a result of work-related stress and chronic pauperisation arising from failed promises by the governments and the general macroeconomic climate of the country and stated its desire to update Nigerians on developments since the suspension of our last national strike action on Friday, 14 October 2022 and our engagements with the current administration since its inception.”

Osodeke lamented that the Federal Government has recently been evasive in paying the backlog of Earned Academic Allowances, a portion of which was included in the 2023 Federal Universities Budget.