ASUU forecast: Why Nigeria will never progress
The chairman, Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, University of Uyo branch, Dr. Happiness Uduk has posited that Nigeria will never progress as long as its keeps spending little on education.
Dr. Uduk, who stated this while interacting with our correspondent, maintained that governments are insincere to the 2009 agreement with ASUU, adding that since the commencement of ASUU strike on March, the Union is yet to sit with the government for the time for negotiation.
In her words: “They have never called us for meeting concerning the strike except that we heard our national officer said they have meeting this week, which will be the first time since March.
“The Union even needed to involve in some negotiation processes; this speaks of the value our government places on education. We have been on strike since March, it just shows that they do not value education and that is why even in the budget, education gets very low percentage.
“Any country that does not value his education is a country that will not go far.”
The Union boss made insisted that although resumption of schools is in the hands of NUC and Senate of various universities, if the duo choose to open, they should know that there will be no academic activities as ASUU strike continues.
She explained that since March which the strike started, the only engagement the Union had with the federal government is the IPPIS; the development she tagged, “a distraction to Union members.
“The bad thing about this is that we have been on strike since March, government is yet to call us to talk to us. The only action they took was to brought a distraction which we called the IPPIS; we see that as a distraction because it was not part of what we were talking about.”
On what she described as insincere government, she said that the government has failed to honour the particulars of 2009 agreement she entered with the union, maintaining that such is unfortunate situation surrounding the country.
It can be recalled that in 2009, the federal government entered agreement with ASUU, stating what the government will do to federal tertiary institution in the country.
Speaking on the items in the agreement, Dr. Uduk said the agreement catered for revitalization fund which was 1.3 trillion to be paid 200 billion annually for fives.
Others include; earned academic allowances, adjunct, sabbatical, arrears and other peculiar allowances like responsibility allowance and hazard allowance.
However, Dr. Uduk revealed that government have not paid the revitalization fund that was supposed to have been completed in 2013 noting that this is why infrastructure in these tertiary institutions are below standard.
“When we talk of revitalisation, we are talking about putting infrastructure in place; costumes, libraries, lecture halls, laboratories and all of those things. If you are a student who stays in the hostel you will notice that the hostels are overcrowded and if they are overcrowded imagine now where physical and social distancing is needed,” she explained.
Following the on-going development, Dr. Uduk made it known that the proposed IPPIS does not cater for the items in the 2009 agreement stating that the Union does not support IPPIS rather University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS.
“What UTAS has done is to take care of these peculiarities I mentioned; like sabbatical, adjunct, arrears and other peculiarities. So, IPPIS does not recognize peculiar allowances,” she stated.
