ASUU declares Sept. 10 ‘Victimised Lecturers’ Day’
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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared September 10, 2024, as ‘Victimised Lecturers’ Day’.
It is a day set aside to alert the world about unending managerial crises and the travails of lecturers in public Universities in Nigeria.
National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke disclosed this, on Wednesday, at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, while briefing Journalists about the outcome of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of ASUU held, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
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Prof. Osodeke, who was flanked by ASUU members during the press briefing, said several lecturers in different Nigerian Universities had either had their appointments terminated, salaries withheld or their promotions denied by the management of such institutions for trying to protect the welfare of academic staff.
These Universities, according to Prof. Osodeke were Kogi State University, Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Lagos State University (LASU), Ambrose Alli University, Federal University of Technology Owerri (FUTO), Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam among others.
The ASUU, while expressing displeasure that its members are still being victimised in FUTO, Owerri, for rejecting the conferment of Professorship title on former Minister of Communication and Digital Technology, Isah Pantami, demanded an end to such rough treatment by FUTO management.
The university lecturers body restated its call on the Federal Government to review and sign the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, payment of outstanding earned academic allowances, release of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and end to third-party deductions of ASUU members’ funds.
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Other issues demanded by the lecturers include the stoppage of illegal retirements, the proliferation of Public Universities, and the abuse of Universities’ laws.
They also called for the removal of Universities from the Single Treasury Account (TSA) and the new Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS.
They pointed out that seasoned and experienced scholars have continued to flee to foreign countries while the numbers of foreign lecturers and students coming to teach and study in Nigeria have drastically nosedived because of the deplorable condition of education in the country.
Apart from this, ASUU argued that 95% of University students are studying in public Universities while only 5% are in private Universities in Nigeria, noting that public Universities are still being funded with the pre-2009 agreement scale.
The ASUU, therefore, vowed to take appropriate decisions at the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum it gave to the Federal government to address all outstanding issues it raised.
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