The Academic Staff Union of Universities has reacted to the statement by President Muhammadu Buhari for it to call off its five-month-old strike, saying: “Enough is enough.”
The union’s reaction came through its President, Prof. Emmanuel Sodeke, who spoke with The Nation newspaper on Tuesday.
Osodeke told The Nation that it was sad that almost a month after the union’s leadership concluded negotiations with the Nimi Briggs-led Federal Government committee, the government had yet to get back to it.
Hee said it was the same outcome last year when the union had a pact with the Prof. Munzali Jubril-led committee on the condition of service for university teachers.
He said: “We have given our conditions for returning to the classrooms.
“They (government) set up a committee to negotiate with us and when they (committee) came, we asked them: ‘Do you have the mandate of the government to negotiate?’
“And they said: ‘Yes.”
“We asked them: ‘Does it mean that whatever we agree with will be accepted by the government?’
“And they said: ‘Yes.’
“We started negotiations and we finished on the 16th of June, 2022.
“They (committee) said they were going back to show their principal and get permission to sign.
“We have been waiting till now.
“It is we who should be saying enough is enough.
“They did that in 2021.
“It took one year to come back.
“And they are doing it again.
“It is we who should be saying enough is enough.
“For us, we believe that is not what the President said.
“We want to confirm it.
“But if that is exactly what he said, then it is so sad.
“We have told the country that any day that they (government) agree to sign and agree on a new salary payment system (UTAS), we will call off the strike immediately.
“Let him (Buhari) do the needful and let the children go back to school, not saying enough is enough.
“He should put our universities right.
“That should be his legacy.
“He should go back saying that my legacy is to restore the dignity of the Nigerian university system, which we have lost.
“It is the Nigerian people who elected them that should be saying enough is enough.
“They didn’t elect themselves.
“They were put in government by the average Nigerians whose children have been suffering today but their own children are abroad enjoying themselves.
“They should listen to those who elected them and Nigerian people are saying enough is enough.
“The government should respond to ASUU’s demands.”
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