We give FG two-month ultimatum to pay all withheld salaries, says ASUU.

The Federal Government has been issued a two-month ultimatum by the Academic Staff Union of Universities to execute all of its demands, or face legal repercussions, including the deployment of the "no pay, no work" policy.

Zonal Coordinator Adelaja Odukoya stated that Nigeria was on the brink of collapse during a press conference on Tuesday that was hosted by the Lagos State Zone of ASUU at the University of Lagos.

ASUU has often used protracted strike activities over the years to put pressure on the FG to carry out its many demands for the betterment of the university system and its faculty. The government truly prioritizes education.
 
Regretfully, the administration has made various promises to the union that are frequently unfulfilled.

Renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement, non-release of withheld salaries and arrears of Earned Academic Allowances, insufficient funding of universities, proliferation of universities, and misleading Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System were among the unfulfilled promises the government made to ASUU.

"We decided to give the government just two months to implement all of our demands, or else our union will raise powerfully in defense of the Nigerian public universities," he declared after the most recent NEC meeting, which was held on May 11 and 12, at Obafemi Awolowo University. 

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The kind of people in charge of Nigeria's political and administrative domains are pulling the country into collapse, and all of its components are suffering as a result.

"It should go without saying that grasshoppers who want to destroy our country and whose only goal is the cavalier accumulation of illegal wealth" will not get even a square inch of territory from our magnificent and patriotic unity.

According to Odukoya, ASUU would not stand by and let politicians who put their own interests ahead of Nigeria's progress damage the country's public universities.

He insisted that if things kept going the way they were, ASUU, a patriotic union, would likewise rise forcefully to defend the oppressed and overworked Nigerian people.

According to Odukoya, Nigerian institutions intentionally receive little financing to maintain the nation's persistent backwardness.

As you can see, the university deliberately underfunds itself, he declared. It works hand in hand with the World Bank's and the International Monetary Fund's neoliberal agenda, which aims to maintain our continuous underdevelopment and backwardness.

It is not surprising that our universities are programmatically becoming redundant entrepreneurial facilities that manufacture bread and pure water instead of becoming citadels of creativity and innovation for cutting-edge technologies.

The goal is to turn the nation into a technology consumer as opposed to a major participant in the information and technology sector. ASUU calls on all well-meaning Nigerians to join us in our fight for more funding for schools and universities as a means of assisting in our people's emancipation. We reject this in its totality.

Odukoya clarified that the reason the renegotiated 2009 Agreement was still in draft form was because the administration refused to sign it or ask for a review if there were any flaws.

"As you may recall from previous texts, the Agreement addresses a variety of topics, including funding for universities, academic freedom, and university autonomy, in addition to terms of service (wages and benefits). The government's inability to reach a consensus during the renegotiation suggests that they do not fully comprehend the document's serious implications. As a result, they are acting as though the issue has been resolved by awarding salaries.

"Convention No. 98 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) discusses the concept of collective bargaining, which is the subject of our union's ongoing discussions with the government. "Mutual agreement in change of wages payable in virtue of a written or unwritten contract of employment by an employer to an employed person" (Article 1) is allowed under the 1949 ILO C095 Protection of Wages Convention. The provisions of the ILO C095 (Article 2 1 & 2) assert."

Former ASUU-UNILAG chairman Dele Ashiru continued, saying, "The NEC will convey to take further actions in two months if all of these outstanding issues are not implemented."

Our purpose is to bring the government's attention to the outstanding concerns between our union and the government, as well as to inform the Nigerian people about the government's lackluster reaction.

"We made it clear to the Nigerian people that Bola Tinubu would be held fully accountable if there was a crisis in the university system. A year is more than enough to start fixing the issues with the APC-led Buhari administration.

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