ESUT dons committed to ASUU strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) chapter has insisted on not compromising the ongoing strike by its members.

It said the only way its members would backpedal is for the Federal Government to implement the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement and the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

During an interview with reporters in Enugu, Acting Chairman of ASUU- ESUT, Festus Omeje, blamed the government for reneging on its promise.

The lecturers called on men of goodwill, to prevail on the Federal Government to respect the two agreements signed.

He said: “ASUU and Nigerians are worried by the institutionalised falsehood, and lack of integrity exhibited by the Federal Government and hence condemns this perfidy in its entirety.”

“One of the hallmarks of good governance is integrity; and this is an all important virtue of those who claim to superintend such an important sector as education.

“The excuse that the government cannot afford to adequately fund university education is dishonest in the face of a situation in which government officials and politicians continue to engage in unconscionable pillaging of state funds.”

Omeje said the face-off was beyond salaries and allowances for lecturers, pointing out that since the 2009 agreement, the government has set up fact-finding missions to ascertain the state of universities.

“Panels of inquiries for need assessment for universities have been set up and reports have been submitted, yet the authorities in the education sector seem to have shunned implementation of the recommendations.

“The needs assessment committee went round the country and what it found was shocking. First, it found that the students-teacher ratio was 1-400 on the average instead of one-40. It found that the classrooms were inadequate and could accommodate only about 30 per cent of the number of students and that education standard was on the decline.”