By Samuel Edu

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities ASUU has said to Federal Government should cultivate the habit of honoring agreements in order to avoid future industrial actions.

Professor Victor Olumekun from Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba said ASUU is not an enemy of progress and advancement in the education sector.

“The ball is in the court of the government, I do not think ASUU has any fault here, there is an employer and there is an employee, the employee will never complain if the employer does what he is meant to do. When agreement are signed, integrity states that they should honor the agreement.

“The government are dealing with people who are probably one of the best brains in the society and it will be wrong for the government to think they can toss them back and forth.

“ASUU is not ready to fight against anybody not even with the government or with the people of Nigeria, but we must survive. When you put together a process of negotiation, it might take some time but at least each party must respect the others’ view and interests to the extent that once an agreement has been reached, it must be implemented.

“We are bunch of responsible people, as a matter of fact, there are some agitations we should have made long ago but we did not bother and at the same time, we must ensure that the system does collapse. The government must be responsible enough to honor the agreement it entered into.”

Another member of the union and a senior professor from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Professor Bayo Aborisade said government is found of dishonoring agreements.

“The only way to avoid a repeat of this strike is for government to honor the agreement it signed with members of the union. We have been on this for a very long time but the fact remains that we are dealing with unserious set of individuals who thinks they can continue to play games with education.

“It is obvious that they are ready to totally paralyze our education for the sake of their selfish interest. ASUU is a union of erudites and intellectuals and any attempt to rubbish the union and education will not be tolerated. My submission is that for future strikes to be averted, government should learn to honor agreements.”

ASUU chairman, Adekunle Ajasin University Akungba Akoko Professor Simon Ehinabi said “the University system cannot thrive appropriately without sufficient funding, hence lecturers has no business in the University if there are no state of the heart facilities.

“The government promised to make the needed facilities available in our institutions but they reneged on their promises, we as members of the union cannot function effectively without these facilities.

“ASUU is not requesting for anything that will be of personal gain to members of the union but for the benefit of Nigeria institutions.  So if the government does not want a repeat of disruption in our universities, they should do the needful.”