By Ayobami Ife, Abeokuta
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Ago Iwoye, Ogun State on Wednesday staged a rally, singing aluta songs and carrying placards of many inscriptions to sensitize parents, students and other stakeholders ahead of a looming nationwide strike.
The ASUU – OOU which said it was acting on the directive of the national body, added that the strike ought to have since commenced but the Union elected to postpone till a date in July to enable members prepare the minds of stakeholders before hand.
The rally led by the OOU branch Acting Chairman, Dr. Wasiu Olooto, took the lecturers round the university campus, where they briefed the students of the imminent strike action, urging them to understand that the strike seeks to save the nation’s public Universities.
The Union also stopped over at the garage and bus terminals, where they addressed parents and motorists about the looming action.
Some of the inscriptions on the placards read: “Nigerians, ASUU has sacrificed more than enough for the survival of the university system,” “FG stop playing politics with our educational system,” “Education is a right and not a privilege,” “Our negotiation should be completed and implemented” among others.
Addressing reporters at the ASUU Secretariat inside the OOU campus after the rally, the Acting branch Chairman, Dr. Olooto identified the Federal Government’s disbanding of some Governing Council Boards of Federal Universities when their tenure had not yet ended and its refusal to recall them, owing members three and half months salaries under the guise of ‘no work, no pay policy’ the FG adopted in response to previous strike and quest for university autonomy as some of the reasons for the envisaged nationwide strike.
Olooto also identified non – implementation of the 2009 ASUU/FG agreement in full, rejection of the UTAS payment system developed by the ASUU and the continued use of the IPPIS to pay members as other unresolved issues necessitating the impending strike.
According to him, the strike is inevitable hence the advance notice to Nigerians, especially stakeholders, so that nobody would be taken unaware.
He said, “The basis of the rally we had today is to sensitize our students and stakeholders in the university about the impending action. The action may be determined by circumstances. It might be strike or something else.
“The essence is to keep them aware that very soon, very very soon and truly, truly I say unto you that very very soon the action will be exposed but it will be as directed by the national body. I believe that they have been sensitized and given their consent. So, if they hear that ASUU is on strike, they would have already been aware of it and the purpose.
“There are many things the government has not done. Our colleagues were being owed eight months salary because of the previous strike. They adopted the policy of ‘no work no pay.’ They have paid four and half months. It still remains three and half months unpaid. We are saying the remaining months owed our members should be paid.
“The claim was that they didn’t teach but they forgot that the job of lecturers is not only limited to teaching. There are areas of community service, there are areas of research. Let them go ask the students if what they were supposed to be taught when ASUU was on strike whether it was not eventually taught when the strike was called off?
“Immediately after the strike was called off and school resumed, we made sure that all what the students were supposed to learn were treated, they were examined, scripts were marked and results were released. What else did they want us to do that we did not do? So, there is no basis for withholding the three and half months salary of our members.”
