As university lecturers get set for a one-week warning strike on Monday, many Nigerians have taken a swipe at them, with some describing them as “very insensitive’’.

The university teachers, under the aegis of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), announced on Wednesday in Jos, that the strike was to force government to implement agreements entered into  in 2009.

Among such agreements, according to Dr Usman Abubakar, Bauchi Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, was the payment of all manners of allowances and the injection of more funds into the university system.

The lecturers also want government to implement their request for an upward review of their retirement age to 70 years.

But some residents and professionals in Plateau, who spoke to newsmen accused the lecturers of putting their individual interests above the collective concerns of other Nigerians, especially the students.

Mr Sylvestre Ade, a lawyer, said he was particularly irked by the lecturers’ insistence on the review of their retirement age to 70.

Mrs Mary Anafa, a civil servant, who screamed at the prospect of another ASUU strike, regretted that the teachers had been out of the classes for “too long’’ over the years.

“Clearly, many of the graduates these days are an embarrassment and it will be good for lecturers to show some concern. We have some new graduates in our office who cannot take even basic minutes of meetings.

A journalist, Peter Shirga, in his reaction, expressed fear that approving the 70 years the lecturers were asking for, would spark a chain of strikes as other professionals in government service would also insist on the same standards.

He alleged that experience had shown that the older professors had always frustrated the younger ones and kept them down, a development, he said, usually worked against the speedy movement of young and brilliant academics.

Retired Maj. Umaru Sati, a businessman, who said that his children have had to remain in university for “several years’’, lamented that the teachers were already threatening another strike, and advised government to strive to sort out the differences with them so as to keep them in the classrooms.