Ebonyi varsity joins ASUU strike, vows to rescue educational system

The Ebonyi State University branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, swore on Thursday to join its national organization in order to save Nigeria’s educational system from utter collapse.

The Union’s leadership made the pronouncement in a statement signed by its acting chairman, Dr. Ikechukwu Igwenyi, and made accessible to media in Abakaliki, Ebonyi State’s capital.

Igwenyi said: “Ebonyi State rose at the end of its emergency congress, Thursday, February 2022, with an overwhelming resolution to activate the nation-wide 4-week roll-over strike declared by ASUU.”

He said that EBSU Chapter of ASUU was activating and joining the strike “because ASUU is a national union that secures our welfare and protects the staff and the institutions from ‘distractive’ and destructive forces of irresponsible rulership”, adding that EBSU as a critical branch of the Union was affected by all the demands made by the Union.

The ASUU Chairman stated that the National Executive Council (NEC) of the Union triggered off the strike “considering that the Government has failed to fully implement the Memorandum of Action it signed with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on 23rd December, 2020.

“Given that the draft report of the Renegotiated 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement has been submitted for finalization for more than nine months and noting that the forceful payment of ASUU members’ salaries and emoluments with the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and non-adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) have continued to short-change our members.”

He said by “activating and joining the national strike action today, there shall henceforth be no academic activities ranging from teaching, seminar and defense to statutory meetings of the Senate, Council, convocation or matriculation”.

The ASUU chairman said they would resume teaching as soon as the strike was suspended and called on parents, students and well-meaning Nigerians to join hands with them to rescue the university education system from collapse.

He contended that it would amount to an act of historical irresponsibility on their part to sit and watch idly while the gains of our heroes’ past were being destroyed by the ruling class.