ASUU Protest Grounds Alex Ekwueme Varsity

Academic activities came to a standstill yesterday at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nduf-Alike Ikwo, Ebonyi State, following a peaceful protest by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over poor service conditions.

The lecturers who marched around the university chanting solidarity songs, accused the federal government of being insensitive to the plights of their members and gave the government two weeks to address their problems.

The union chairperson, Comrade Louis Omenyi, who led the members on the protest, said the lecturers’ strike, which would be total if their demands were not met, would be imminent.

He regretted that the federal government has refused to pay lecturers their salaries when they embarked on strike in 2022.

He said, “The public blames ASUU; they said they don’t know why we are striking like thunder. Now we want to tell everybody that we are going to strike harder than thunder this time around because of the following.

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“Up tili today, 2022, salaries are still being withheld. We are being owed three and a half months of a very useless salary that we have been receiving since 2009, more than 15 years ago. That’s what we receive as lecturers. Is that acceptable?

“No governing council, if you go to other federal universities in Nigeria, there is no governing council. We are asking for improved salaries according to the agreement we signed with the federal government of Nigeria.

“President Tinubu cornered the union and promised that immediately he came in as president, he would not only bring Agbado but pay us and resolve all our university problems. For more than one year now, salaries cannot be paid.

“For more than one year today, we have been owed the salaries that were supposed to have been paid in 2022 when we went on strike. Till today, people at Ebonyi State University are still chasing our members around, frustrating them without salaries so that they will die of hunger.

“As a union, we are saying no to the federal government. They have just two weeks from today to do the needful and shall tell them why we can strike more than thunder.”