The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) responded to Senate President, David Mark, calling on him to beg President Jonathan to implement the 2009 agreement.
National Treasurer, ASUU, Dr. Demola Aremu made the remarks, and noted that President Jonathan was part of the negotiation that lasted 7 years and culminated in the 2009 agreement.
David Mark had earlier said that the agreement was impossible to implement and said the government officials who negotiated the agreement with ASUU did not know what they were doing.
Aremu, in response to that, said ASUU began the negotiation with a 300 page charter which was reduced to a 60 page agreement after the negotiations with FG.
He said Jonathan, who was then the Vice President, asked the government to sign the agreement after thoroughly going through it for six months.
“He perused the draft agreement and asked the government team to sign every page of the document. Our President also signed it. The content of the agreement we have today is not what we took to the negotiation table. That shows Nigerians how greatly we’ve shifted ground. So, the team knew what they went into.”
Aremu also disclosed that the FG went into a MOU on the implementation of the agreement in 2012. He asked: “So, if anyone assumes that they didn’t know what they were doing in 2009, did they also not know what they were doing in 2012?”
“Begging will not bring any solution. Nigerians should rather beg government to face this agreement squarely and implement it. That is where our future lies,” Aremu said.
ASUU also called on the lawmakers to reduce their allowances and channel some of the monies to education in Nigeria, saying future generations will thank them for it.
A statement by the University of Ibadan (UI) chairman of the union, Dr Olusegun Ajiboye, said, “We are fighting a just cause. Can the senators wait for four years of their tenure before their allowances are paid? Can the Senate members sit in the chambers without air conditioners? What role has the Senate played to increase budgetary allocation to education? It is even funny for the Senate President to feign ignorance of the ASUU agreement as the sitting Senate President in 2009,” Ajiboye said.