The Union of Universities of Academic Personnel (ASUU) has declared that it would never believe that the Federal Government's claim has released N50 billion to resolve the assignments won from the academic and non -academic unions of federal universities until its members begin to receive bank alerts on the effect.
Asuu's national president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, declared this in an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune over the weekend.
Remember that the Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, made a public statement that went viral last week, announcing the release of N50 billion by the government to resolve the unpaid won allocations of federal university workers throughout the country.
But the president of Asuu, when his reaction was asked, said that the union, based on past experiences, had learned his lesson to never believe in the Nigerian government in the pages of the newspapers until there is concrete evidence on the table with respect to the issue at stake.
According to him, “we hear the information through the media like any other Nigerian, since there is still no official communication for us on the matter.
“Although we had verbal communication with the Minister of Education a few days ago on the matter, it is not enough conviction for us.”
He explained reasons not to trust the government, saying: “It is a common practice for successive governments in Nigeria to make promises and not fulfill them.”
He said he baffled the union that the federal government could celebrate the release of money by assignments earned as if it were the main problem that it should address.
He said that the assignment won is only many problems and even in that, the N50 billion can only solve two out of eight years that are due.
He explained that Asuu had been asking the successive governments to conclude first on the issue of renegotiation of their 2009 agreement, capturing a new salary scale and subsidies for all university workers, injection of revitalization funds, etc. And then talk about what ASUU members can lose as assignments by the eight years as a sacrifice.
“Then, Asuu has announced the government to pay two years, while we can decide to resign at age six, but the government has not done anything in that regard to date,” Osodeke said.
Highlighting several renegotiation committees constituted by the federal government in the past and on the same issues, appointed the headers by Dr. Wale Babalakin, Professor Nimi Briggs and lately, Dr. Yayale Ahmed.
He said that each committee allocation ended in the same way without a positive result, especially for Asuu.
According to him, government representatives always tell Asuu that he will inform his directors and then return with the government's offer to form the basis of a new agreement for the signer.
“But that will generally be the end of such an effort for each committee, since they will not return until another is constituted for a round of a new discussion,” he said, emphasizing, “those have been the tactics of the government over the years.”
He explained that the last committee, headed by Dr. Yayale Ahmed, concluded with the union since November 2024, but that until now five full months after anything to show for the effort.
Also read: Why FG should stop interfering with the VCS quotation – Asuu