ASUU Demands N1 Trillion From FG
Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has demanded the sum of One Trillion Naira from the Federal Government of Nigeria to suspend its ongoing strike.
Recalled that ASUU announced a four-week “comprehensive and total” warning strike on Monday, February 14, 2022, Valentine’s day.
ASUU National President Prof Emmanuel Osodeke announced the four weeks ASUU strike to journalists on Monday in Lagos, after members of the Union’s National Executive Council had held marathon meetings at the University of Lagos Themed ‘NEC for NEC,’ after which the Union embarked on a strike.
Nigeria has 49 federal universities, 54 owned by state governments and 109 private ones. Federal universities are currently on strike while some state-owned are not part of the strike, the reason being that some major demands by ASUU are peculiar only to Federal Universities.
The issue of inadequate funding of the education sector cuts across all public universities, just like the demand for better salaries and other conditions of service. The financial innuendo of the demands by ASUU run into billions of naira, going by an agreement signed by the FG with the union, government is expected to commit Two Hundred Billion Naira annually for five years to the revitalization of the sector.
To meet this segment of the ASUU demand, the Federal Government must cough out “One Trillion Naira”, however, what the FG recently did was release only the sum of “Thirty Billion Naira” as a sign of commitment.
In a tweet on Sunday afternoon, February 27, 2022, ASUU tweeted ” Our Demand is #1trillion before strike will be suspended.” The tweet which has since given rise to massive reactions from Nigerians.
