ASUU Leadership Reveals New Jobs Lecturers Have Taken Up Due To FG's 'Inconsistencies'

• Some lecturers across the country have laid heavy allegations against the federal government of Nigeria
• The lecturers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities said the government has turned their colleges to cab drivers and farmers
• The allegation was made against FG by the Lagos state ASUU coordinator during one of the union's meeting

The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Wednesday, December 14, accused the Nigerian government of turning lecturers into menial workers.

The Punch reports that Adelaja Odukoya, the coordinator of ASUU Lagos zone made the allegation while addressing journalists at the end of the union's zonal meeting held at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Odukoya also alleged that the government is deliberately improvising university lecturers through its refusal to implement the memorandum of action signed with the union in 2020.

Read also

ASUU slams FG, makes decision on planed nationwide strike

He said most university lecturers have taken up jobs as farmers, taxi drivers and many other petty tradings just to make ends meet.

Stating that Nigerian lecturers are the least paid in the world, Odukoya said their salaries are a disgrace that shows the premium at which the government has placed the education of the country.

Vanguard reports that while noting that the last lecturers' salaries were increased was in 2009, Odukoya accused the federal government of using their refusal to implement the agreement as a weapon against Nigerian lecturers.

He said:

“It will shock you to know that for most of us outside Lagos, we engage in farming to survive, while some of us in Lagos engage in kabukabu (tax driving) and other menial jobs because our salary can no longer take us home.

Read also

ASUU announces when it will take a decision on proposed nationwide strike

“This is happening against the background of the public admission by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan only yesterday that a Senator earns N1.5 million while a member of the House of Representatives earns N1.3m per month.”

ASUU members in Imo state says, 'no retreat, no surrender' with strike action

The Owerri zone of ASUU has threatened a total showdown of universities in the state in alignment with the union's national body.

According to the union, the federal government failed to implement the 2009 agreement reached with them.

ASUU Zonal coordinator, Uzo Onyebinama, also disclosed that some lecturers are being owed as much as 10 months’ salary.

Speaker Gbajabiamila summons ASUU president over planned industrial action

Also, on Tuesday, November 16, ASUU's president Emmanuel Osedeke has been summoned over the recent strike threat issued.

Osedeke's presence was requested by Femi Gbajabiamila, the speaker of House of Reps, along with the ministers of finance and education.

ASUU had earlier given the federal government a 3-week ultimatum over its failure to implement the agreement it signed.

Source: Legit.ng