The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari administration of failing Nigerian workers.
ASUU asked Nigerian workers to resist a system which it said has consistently exposed them to suffering under the burden of current political and financial corruption of the ruling class.
The union also asked President Buhari to toe the path of honour and sign the already renegotiated agreements which will improve the working conditions and make our universities look like a real knowledge ecosystem.
This was contained in a May Day message by the Chairman University of Ibadan Chapter of the Union Prof. Ayo Akinwole entitled “For still surviving in a country that lacks workers’ friendly government; Nigerian workers deserve a salute.”
According to the ASUU boss, traditional rulers in Nigeria look away while their people suffer while religious leaders have become “chattered prophets, prayer contractors, ministers of their own bellies and priests of violence.”
Akinwole flayed the Buhari administration “whose anti-workers policy has made Nigerian workers poorer,” alleging an increasing rise in prices of commodities and services.
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He said:
This administration has failed Nigerians in the following ways: Non implementation of minimum wage policy of the government by all the states; Inappropriate payment platform of salary which denies workers the opportunity to plan for the future; Embargo on employment in federal Universities has turned workers to slaves; workers have become hopeless because there is no succession plan; High level of insecurity has negatively affected safety of life and properties; Political instability in Nigeria – more than ever before this government polarized the country along religion and ethnicity; Citizenship in the Nigerian state has been compromised due to wrong attitude of government that does not see the need to promote integration; The current administration lacks the capacity to unite the country and provide needed forum for the future; and Our youth have become negatively aggressive and have given in to moral lapses. Nigerian people have been abandoned to the elements, to bandits and terrorists, to disease and scarcity.
They are fed with words on empty stomachs and are nourished with promises that are never kept. Excuses are the strong points of policy makers and the past is waved in their workers faces to justify the failures of the present. The future is being ravaged daily by a political class, knowing what they have done; fear that the country is at the last throes of death.
The ASUU chairman then saluted the courage of Nigerian workers to dare the odds and survive under the precarious conditions, saying:
On this day, we observe moments of silence for the Nigerian people and workers who have been victims of terrorism and brutality of the ruling administration. We stand still for women and girls who are victims of rape and sexual enslavement.
Today, we remember the thousands of Nigerians who have been buried in mass and unmarked graves, with no opportunity by family and loved ones to bid them farewell; we share the grief of parents who are in mourning over their dead and missing children. It is sad to note that in the face of the enduring grief and hopelessness of Nigerians, the political class is in a frenzy of political carnivals. God shall indeed judge the wicked.
