ASUU says it has exercised patience and pursued dialogue with the President Bola Tinubu administration, but its demands remain unattended to.
Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) at the Federal University of Lafia on Tuesday staged a peaceful protest to demand improved welfare and better conditions of service from the Nigerian government.
The protesting lecturers, who turned out in large numbers, sang solidarity songs and carried placards with inscriptions such as "Pay our withheld salaries now," "Starving lecturers is strangling education," "ASUU rejects FG Tertiary institution loan," and "Our campuses are unfit for teaching and learning."
In a statement shared on the official Facebook page of the Federal University of Lafia Diary, the branch chairperson of ASUU, Sunday Orinya, said the union had exercised patience and pursued dialogue with the President Bola Tinubu administration, but its demands remain unattended to.
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"We have chosen this route at great pain and loss of hundreds of our colleagues, hoping that we can collectively entrench a culture of industrial peace and harmony on our campuses. Our expectation was that the government would reciprocate our gesture by implementing the report of the Nimi Briggs Renegotiation Committee, considering the plight of our members. But what we have received in return is deceit and disappointment from government in its most callous form," he said.
Mr Orinya noted that the federal government has yet to release three and a half months of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and other entitlements despite repeated appeals.
He also faulted the government for abandoning the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement, which, according to him, has been subjected to four different renegotiation committees without meaningful implementation.
The union leader warned that lecturers were being pushed into deeper hardship, citing soaring living costs, rising insecurity, and what he described as the "pauperisation" of academics.
"Nigerian academics are finding it difficult to meet basic demands such as feeding, shelter, medical care, and transportation. In the past two years, we have witnessed an upsurge in the death rate of lecturers across our campuses. At an average of 60 deaths reported at every National Executive Council meeting, we lose over 240 members annually due to pauperisation," he added.
ASUU's demands include the release of withheld salaries, payment of arrears, adoption of UTAS (TITAS) as a payment system, and the immediate implementation of improved conditions of service for academic staff.
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Mr Orinya also urged students, parents, and the general public to hold the federal government responsible for any disruption in the university calendar.
