The National President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has claimed that the former Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, and his collaborators are responsible for truncating the five years of negotiations between ASUU and the government in 2021.

He lamented that instead of the government to sign the document after years of painstaking engagement, it was dumped for God-knows reasons.

The ASUU president made the allegation at a press conference on Wednesday at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU).

He gave the Federal Government a 21-day ultimatum to address all outstanding issues raised by ASUU, or the union would be forced to take appropriate actions to achieve their demands.

Osodeke was flanked at the press conference by ASUU Coordinator, Calabar Zone, Comrade Happiness Uduk; her Owerri Zone counterpart, Professor Denis Aribodor; ASUU Chairman, MOUAU branch, Professor Michael Ugwuene; his Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) counterpart, Professor Kingsley Ubaoji, among other chapter Chairmen and officials.

The ASUU boss, who said the Nigerian Government “is unwilling to invest in the education sector”, identified some of the lingering issues including: the review and signing of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement; impactful funding, including emergency revitalization fund of public universities; and payment of outstanding earned academic allowances.

Others include the immediate release of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and third-party deductions of our members; stoppage of illegal recruitments; proliferation of public universities/abuse of universities’ laws, regulations, and processes.

The ASUU National President also demanded immediate implementation of the presidential directive for the removal of university lecturers from the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System, IPPS.

He wondered why the directive by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) since December 2023 is yet to be implemented by the Accountant General of the Federation.