From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday alleged that some cabinet members of President Muhammadu Buhari have been telling him lies on the strike embarked on by the union more than seven months ago.
The union also said it wrote letters to the House of Representatives and the Senate in September and October 2021 to avert the industrial action, but got no fruitful intervention before proceeding on the strike.
The Chairman, University of Ibadan chapter of the union, Prof Ayoola Akinwole, who made the disclosure on Tuesday in Ibadan, said the National Assembly promised in 2020 that the demands of ASUU that were agreed on would be made to have provision in the 2021 budget. He, however, accused the National Assembly of reneging on their promise to the union before the union suspended its earlier strike in 2020.
Speaking on the invitation of ASUU and Minister of Education as well as other stakeholders for a crucial meeting by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, the ASUU chairman noted that Gbajabiamila did not also fulfill his promise to add the union’s demands into 2021 budget.
The people speaking for government, according to him, are only feeding Nigerians with lies, adding that Nigerians should make government responsible.
On the statement that 2009 agreements have been renegotiated with previous administration as purportedly claimed by Dr. Chris Ngige, Akinwole stated that it was  total falsehood adding that the Union was on the verge of concluding the renegotiation before government jettisoned collective bargaining which forced the Union to proceed on indefinite strike
The union leader disclosed that but for ASUU struggles, the leadership of Nigeria would have had easy ride of taking education out of the reach of children of common man in order for them to become slaves to the children of rulling class.
“We wrote the Speaker, House of Representatives in September 2021, who invited ASUU to a meeting again, as if he lived up to the promise he made to us, while pleading with us to suspend strike in 2020.
“We also wrote the Senate, through the Senate President in October of 2021. Nothing happened. They all abandoned us. We gave religious body opportunity. It yielded nothing. Most of government people are feeding Nigerians with lies. I have two of my children at home with me.
“The ASUU President does not have children studying abroad.  It’s all lies and a strategy to paint him in bad light. We were supposed to be reviewing our salaries every three years according to the 2009 agreements, but here we are in 2022 still fighting to earn something reasonable.
“When it comes to the masses, they will say no money. But they increased their own allowances and heaven did not fall. ASUU does not want Nigeria to be irrelevant in the area of education. Education is global and that is why we have to give our children global standard education and funding has a major role to play and we need to attract international scholars if we have competitive conditions of service. No one will come to Nigeria and teach with poverty wage and bad working conditions”