By Akudiang Comfort Pius, Jos
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Plateau State University (PLASU) branch, carried out a protest march within the university campus in Bokkos on Thursday.
The protest was in response to the federal government’s failure to sign and implement the 2009 agreement which was negotiated with ASUU, as per the Nimi Briggs Committee report, and other issues affecting public universities.
The chairman of the union, Dr. Monday Hassan Zitta, and the secretary, Dr. Lomka Iliya kopdiya at a press Conference on Thursday at University campus said, stated that their protest was in compliance with the directive of the National Executive Council,.
According to them, the aim was to call on the federal government to honor all agreements reached with the union.
According to them, the federal government reached an agreement with ASUU in 2009 on critical issues regarding conditions of service, funding, and university autonomy, but lamented that successive governments have deliberately refused to honor this agreement, which would be in the best interest of the masses.
They recalled that in their campaign promises, politicians, particularly President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, promised that these issues would be resolved and that there would be no more strikes.
” However, it has been over a year now, and they have demonstrated a clear unwillingness to take any action to solve these problems”.
According to the duo, the compounding economic hardship in the country has made it so difficult that many of the highly ranked lecturers, who should be present to mentor the upcoming ones, are leaving the country in search of better opportunities.
Part of the protest was also about the non-implementation of the 20-25-35% wage award for Plateau university staff in the state and the exclusion of university workers in the payment of palliatives as well as the absence of a governing council in their state university and other unaddressed matters.
They emphasized that Plateau State University is a public university that has benefited tremendously from the past struggles of the union and they called on the federal and state governments to take seriously the responsibility of ensuring quality university education.
They hoped that these protests would sensitize the public, particularly the civil society, religious leaders, and women in Nigeria, to intervene in order to prevent a looming strike action.
The Academic staff union members of PLASU in the course of the protest marched from the venue of their meeting to main gate of the University singing solidarity songs with barners.
