2009 FG/ASUU Agreement Outdated – EBSU Chair

Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Ebonyi State University chapter, Dr Ikechukwu Igwenyi yesterday insisted that the 2009 Federal Government/ASUU agreement is not only out of date and obsolete but unrealistic today.

Dr Igwenyi maintained that the union must call for a review of the 2009 FG/ASUU negotiated agreement which he said is over 13 years now.

This was contained in a statement he issued yesterday, in Abakaliki and made available to LEADERSHIP. He said, “ASUU, as a thinking union of intellectuals, is not realistic in this current struggle and there is need for the union to call for the review of the negotiated 2009 FG/ASUU agreement to ascertain possible performance rate and the expected outcomes.

“It is considered that the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement is not only out of date and obsolete but unrealistic today, if truth must be told, because of the time value of money over 13 years of this negotiation.

“It is a fact that a people that take no interest in what seems small, will definitely take a false interest in what is big”.

He accused Nigerian leaders of setting wrong priorities adding that governments are not paying due attention to the demands of ASUU in this imbroglio but rather join the unpatriotic gladiators that have no interest in nation building through quality education.

He stated that majority of the political gladiators who are working against ASUU do not have their children attending schools here in Nigeria.

“It is a clear testimony of irresponsibility with the recent vituperations from some highly placed individuals in government and the idea of taking ASUU to court,” he said.

He noted that the N1.1trillion outstanding revitalisation fund for the nation’s universities was no longer tenable pointing out that the current economic realities did not match with the hitherto pact the union entered with the authorities, in 2009.

Igwenyi further maintained that it was expedient for leaders to pay critical attention to the merits of ASUU position on tertiary education adding that the government was paying lip-service to the demands of the union.