The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Friday, said it would not allow federal and state governments destroy public universities in the country.
The union added that aggrieved parents, students and other stakeholders should hold the Federal Government responsible for the ongoing one-week warning strike.
While addressing a press conference in the Niger Delta University, NDU, Bayelsa, ASUU insisted that the industrial action was for the best interest of development of tertiary education in the country.
The NDU chapter Chairman of ASUU, Dr. Stanley Ogoun, disclosed that the union was out to stand against any move by politicians, who had started the business of running private universities, to kill public institutions.
According to him, “We call on students, parents and the ordinary people of Nigeria to understand that our actions are geared towards resisting and frustrating the attempt by the ruling class to commercialize and privatize university education in Nigeria.
“We will resist every attempt to kill the university system the way they killed primary and secondary schools. If we fail to stand on the side of truth, posterity will not forgive us.
“Before now, we were receiving subventions to run the universities, but now they are withdrawing the subventions. Most state universities are almost grounded why political actors are floating private universities”, he said.
“The current state of the economy is manmade and the government of the day must live up to its responsibilities by initiating policy options that would move us out of our current economic state, except the government is bereft of ideas.”
He lamented the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, it signed with the government during the 2009 and 2013 industrial action had not been implemented.
He added, “For the avoidance of doubt, this current action is compelled by failure of negotiations and several entreaties from our union since 2004 till date and the current trend in some states where staff salaries are sacrificed on the altar of other exigencies.”
He said the lecturers were on strike because of federal government refusal to pay Earned Academic Allowances, EAA; shortfall in salaries leading to payment of fractions of staff salaries; non-payment of salaries of staff in the staff primary schools and exemption of universities from the Treasury Single Account, TSA.
He said other reasons were non-release of funds for the revitalization of public universities; non-release of subventions to state universities by the visitors and non-payment of staff salaries and refusal to issue license for the registration of the Nigerian University Pension Management Company, NUPEMCO.
