Lecturers Restate Stand On Agreement

Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Owerri Zone has called on well-meaning citizens of Nigeria to prevail on governors of Abia, Anambra, Ebony, Enugu, Imo and Rivers State to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement in their respective state universities in order to restore normaly in these institutions.

The call was part of the resolutions arrived at by the union in its zonal meeting held Monday at the University of Port Harcourt.

According to ASUU, the call has become imperative in view of what it described as exhibition of unwarranted indifference to issues of educational development even when it was clear that many of the governors benefited from well-articulated and well-funded educational programmes.

In the meeting which was attended by representatives of the universities in the Owerri Zone, ASUU particularly condemned the attempt by governors of the South-Eash geo-political zone to reduce issues of university education to narrow ethnic and clannish interests.

ASUU accused Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State who is the chairman of Governors Forum in the zone of petty-mindedness, claiming that he squandered a golden opportunity that should have resolved the strike action embarked upon by lecturers of South-East State universities that attended the stake-holders meeting in Enugu.

“Such an action ridicules the universal structure of universities as people everywhere have a right to work anywhere they wish and should be recognised for who they are”, ASUU said.

Reacting to the statement of Governor Chibuike Amaechi that students of the two state universities should prepare to stay at home much longer than necessary because of the strike, ASUU said the governor’s utterance is a display of insensitivity to the plight of hopeless and helpless youths.

Co-ordinator of ASUU, Owerri zone, Dr. Emylia Jaja noted that the non-implementation of the FGN/ASUU agreement by the Rivers State government had further placed lecturers take home far below what obtains in other states.

Chris Oluoh