As the ongoing national strike by the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) enters the third week, the union has said that the
threat of no-work-no-pay by the government would not make it suspend the
action.
Rather, the union, which described the Federal Government as
‘slave trader’, said it had resolved not to go back to the classroom until
after the full implementation of the agreement as signed with the union in
2009.
It said, ”After about 300 years of slave trade, the FG’s attempt
to make this era of a second or third slavery will not be allowed. Our students
have said to us ‘do not come back without achieving results from your strike’.
The national convener, ASUU Committee on Human Rights, Sola
Olorunyomi, stated this in Ibadan at the weekend with a vow that the union
would deliver Nigerian education from the enslavement of the political class.
Olorunyomi, who is also a member of University of Ibadan
Strike Information Sub-committee, lamented that the Federal Government’s body
language showed insincerity, recalling that the leadership of ASUU, which met
with representatives of the Federal Government were shocked when the government
side feigned ignorance of the strike and any agreement until they were showed
their signatures on the document.
“We are resolute this time. We are prepared to go hungry.
You can’t believe that the people we met first feigned ignorance of the
agreement not until our team brought out the memorandum of agreement and some
of them saw their signatures. It was a drama of sorts but you can only have
that in Nigeria”, he said.
He maintained that both the Federal Government and the
political class had conspired to under-develop Nigeria by not funding
education, but vowed to forge ahead with the strike until the agreement was
fully implemented and the enslavement of education stopped.
Culled: Osun Defender
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