The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused the the Federal Government of using blackmail to force lecturers back to class, saying students might resort to protest against the union’s ongoing strike.
ASUU, Akure Zone stated this on Friday, urging the general public to intervene in the impasse in the interest of the students.
ASUU had on March 23, 2020, declared a “total and indefinite strike” over the failure of the Federal Government to keep to the 2019 Memorandum of Action and over the lingering crisis on the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
Addressing newsmen at the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Akure Zone ASUU coordinator Prof Olu Olufayo noted that the Federal Government had stopped negotiation with the lecturers until the recent eruption of violence during #EndSARS protests.
He said: “Our students have stayed at home for too long; they have been at home for almost a year now. Don’t forget we didn’t send them home. We embarked on strike before the advent of coronavirus. Don’t forget #EndSARS protests. It was at that point that the government realised that students should not have been idle.
“So, that must have made the government to ask us to resume negotiation. All through the period coronavirus was strong, we were not called for negotiation. But now, government wants us to return to class and engage the students. If we return to class now, what are we going to do there? I can’t teach when I don’t have money to feed myself.
“Also, during #EndSARS protest, the youths also said they wanted to end bad governance. Students in universities in Kwara State have given the government two weeks ultimatum to resolve issues with ASUU and reopen schools, otherwise they would return to the streets. That must have scared government and they told us to return to the classroom. But how can we resume without being paid?” Olufayo asked.
