Students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, on Thursday joined members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the institution to stage a peaceful rally to sensitize other members of the university community and the general public about ASUU’s long-standing demands from the Federal Government.
They, along with their lecturers, were armed with banners and placards with various inscriptions such as “No education, no development,” “Education is a right, not a privilege,” “Stop establishing new universities, fund the existing ones properly,” “Lecturers too want earthly rewards for teaching,” “IPPIS destroys while UTAS protects the university system,” and “Release unpaid salaries of staff on Sabbatical and adjunct,” among others, singing solidarity songs.
They moved around the campus and concluded the rally in front of the university’s main gate, where their leaders, on both sides, addressed the crowd in turn.
Some of the students, including Ayomide Madojutimi, a 400-level student from the Department of Political Science, said they deliberately participated in the rally to show their strong support for ASUU’s cause on the contentious issues.
They said that even though they knew that if ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike, it would affect them as such action would disrupt the academic calendar, the government needed to act without further delay to avert such a situation.
They strongly believed that ASUU’s struggle is geared towards better public university education in Nigeria. They noted that the lecturers are also parents who have children in the universities and that some of them are also students at higher levels, thus deserving their wages and better welfare.
They said it was not only painful but unheard of that the Federal Government could not resolve even one of ASUU’s numerous demands many years later, noting that such a situation does not portray the government as responsible.
The students said they were aware that ASUU had used various channels to reach out to the government on the matter, especially in recent times, without the government showing genuine concern, let alone addressing their demands.
“So, if it is only until ASUU applies industrial action for the government to attend to them and do the right thing, so be it,” Ayomide declared.
The students, therefore, urged the Federal Government to do the needful and not allow ASUU to embark on a strike before taking positive action.
Addressing the crowd, the Chairman of ASUU of the UNILAG branch, Prof. Kayode Adebayo, declared that ASUU national can declare industrial action for members nationwide anytime from now if the Federal Government is still unwilling to meet their demands.
He reiterated that many appeals and persuasions had been made consistently to the Federal Government, including writing an open letter to President Bola Tinubu by ASUU, to address their long-standing concerns, yet nothing tangible had come from the efforts.
He listed some of their demands to include the conclusion and signing of the Renegotiated ASUU/FGN Agreement based on Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee’s Report, proper funding of all public universities, release of withheld three and a half months’ salaries on account of the 2022 strike action, release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time, and adjunct appointments, payment of all outstanding promotion arrears to deserving lecturers since 2018, immediate stoppage of the proliferation of universities by both the state and federal governments, deployment of UTAS to replace IPPIS, and so forth.
He said all these issues had been pending for many years without successive governments, including the current administration, addressing them.
He declared that the only saving grace that could prevent ASUU from embarking on the proposed industrial action, which is likely to be declared at the next NEC meeting, is for the Federal Government to respond quickly to their concerns.
Also speaking, the immediate past chairman of the ASUU branch, Dr. Dele Ashiru, emphasized that the union could no longer tolerate the “Federal Government’s insensitivity” to the plight of lecturers and the public university system as a whole.
He declared that ASUU as an entity and its members are not afraid to embark on industrial action if that will be the only way out, saying it has the absolute right to do so.
Ashiru noted that the threat of a ‘no work, no pay’ policy by the government would never be applicable to them as the policy is totally unknown in labor laws globally, to which Nigeria is a signatory.
He said it was high time Nigeria’s political leaders stopped treating scholars as slaves.