The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the Federal Government of treating the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement with levity, warning that the ongoing delay and half-hearted approach risk triggering another crisis in Nigeria’s public university system.
Speaking on the lingering dispute, ASUU’s leadership declared: “The Federal Government would be serious for once to put the unresolved issues behind them by satisfactorily concluding the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and genuinely addressing other ancillary matters in contention.”
ASUU particularly criticised the salary component, describing the government’s proposed increment as grossly inadequate.
“We have rejected the proposed salary increment by the government because it is a mere drop in the ocean that is incapable of achieving the desired reversal of the brain drain syndrome currently bedevilling university education in the country,” the union stated.
The union expressed frustration at what it called a “back-and-forth” approach that has yielded no tangible results. “We are saying enough is enough to the back-and-forth approach of the Federal Government to the negotiation.
This half-hearted approach must stop now. This ‘we are talking with ASUU’ without results must stop.”
ASUU highlighted the erosion of lecturers’ purchasing power, noting that university teachers have been stuck with the same salary structure agreed in 2009 when the naira exchanged at approximately ₦120 to the dollar.
“The most obvious implication of the refusal of the government to conclude this negotiation is that university teachers in Nigeria have continued with the same salary regime of 2009 when the value of the naira to a dollar was ₦120,” ASUU lamented, adding that salaries in many other sectors have been reviewed upward at least twice since then.
The union warned that without a radical and sincere overhaul of salaries and conditions of service, the exodus of experienced academics from Nigerian universities will only worsen, further undermining the quality of tertiary education in the country.
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