Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has called on the Federal Government to resume negotiation with the union over the agreement it reached in 2009 towards the decay in public universities or face industrial action.

The union also accused the Federal Government of failing to honour agreements it reached with the union in 2013 and 2017.It also decried Federal government’s failure to pay the arrears of shortfall in salaries, even after the presidential initiative on continuous audit verification.

Speaking to the Press in Benin, Edo State, the Benin Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Professor Fred Esumeh, lamented that the Federal Government had failed to release the operational licence of the Nigeria University Pension Management Company to serve as a pension fund administrator for staff, as contained in the 2017 Memorandum of Action. Esumeh also affirmed that the seven percent allocation to education in the 2018 budget, as against the 26 percent recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO, was a clear indication of the scornful stance of government towards the sector.

“More than 14 months after, renegotiation broke down over the antics of chairman of government renegotiation team and his attitude to impose his views. “He thinks university education should be driven by market principles of trading-in and purchasing, likened to commercialisation of higher education,” he said.