The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Sunday, tasked Nigerian workers to rise and resist a system which has consistently exposed them to suffering under the burden of current political and financial corruption of the ruling class.
ASUU in a May Day press release signed by the chairman, University of Ibadan chapter, Professor Ayo Akinwole, also charged President Muhammadu Buhari to toe the path of honour by signing the already renegotiated agreements with the union.
In the statement entitled “For still surviving in a country that lacks workers-friendly government; Nigerian workers deserve a salute”, the ASUU chairman stated that signing the renegotiated agreement would improve the working conditions and make universities look like real knowledge ecosystem.
The ASUU chairman said the President Buhari-led government was unfriendly to workers, hence the need for Nigeria civil servants to resist being used to terrorise themselves through the adoption of a divide and rule system.
“The current Buhari administration’s anti-workers policy has made Nigerian workers poorer. There is increasing rise in prices of commodities and services. 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,” he said.
Professor Akinwole added that the “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 polarised 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.”
Accusing traditional rulers in Nigeria of looking away while their people suffer while religious leaders have become “chattered prophets, prayer contractors, ministers of their own bellies and priests of violence”, the ASUU chairman said, ” 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.”
Professor Akinwole, while lauding the courage of the workers to dare the odds and survive under the precarious conditions said, “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.
“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.”
