Senate fumes over FG’s breach of ASUU pact, pledges swift mediation to end strike

The Senate, yesterday, berated the Federal Government for failing to honour agreements reached with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), vowing to intervene decisively to end the ongoing two-week warning strike.

Speaking after a closed-door session with the leadership of ASUU at the National Assembly, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Sen. Mohammed Dandutse (Katsina South), said lawmakers would summon a tripartite meeting involving the Ministry of Education, the National Universities Commission (NUC) and ASUU next week to avert a prolonged shutdown of public universities.

“The Senate is not happy that the government’s agreement with ASUU has not been fulfilled,” Dandutse told reporters.

“You cannot teach when your stomach is empty. We will face the ministry of education together and ensure these issues are addressed once and for all.”

Dandutse added that the Committee will submit a detailed report to Senate President Godswill Akpabio and urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to personally intervene in the standoff. He also disclosed plans to engage FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, to halt the encroachment on University of Abuja land.

Backing ASUU’s position, Sen. Olubiyi Fadeyi (Osun Central) lamented the decay in public universities and faulted government’s recurrent breach of agreements with lecturers.

“ASUU’s demands are not unreasonable. What is unacceptable is the government’s habit of signing agreements and abandoning them,” Fadeyi said.

ASUU President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, accused the government of abandoning its responsibilities and underfunding tertiary education. He said Nigerian lecturers are now among the poorest on the continent, earning far less than counterparts in South Africa, Ghana, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

He listed the union’s demands to include immediate payment of three-and-a-half months of withheld salaries, release of N50bn revitalisation funds, and remittance of pension deductions. He said the strike would end “immediately” if government shows “genuine commitment” and not “political promises”.

Piwuna also warned against alleged moves to seize portions of the University of Abuja’s land, describing the attempt as “a chokehold on the future of public education”.