*tasks Nigerians to arise, save public education!
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
The Joint Action Front (JAF) on Wednesday expressed
JAF in a statement by its Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, stated that it is the Federal Government that compelled ASUU to proceed on the warning strike and that the government should without wasting time, meet the demands of ASUU for students of public universities to return to classes.
In the statement, JAF lamented that it was unfortunate that ASUU was ” compelled to proceed on the strike because of the alleged anti-people, insensitive and despicable the Federal government has demonstrated since inception in 2015.
According to JAF, the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari has since 2015 allegedly ” demonstrated unseriousness , insincerity and contemptuous disregard to the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Memorandum of Action (MOA) the Federal Government reached and signed with the union.
” The Joint Action Front (JAF) hereby declares its solidarity and total support to the current strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which commenced on February 14, 2022, and hereby calls on the Federal Government to immediately meet the demands of ASUU so that students of public universities throughout the country can return to classes”, it said.
JAF in the statement maintained that it ” acknowledges that ASUU was compelled to proceed on the strike because of the anti-people, insensitive and despicable Buhari Government, has since inception in 2015, demonstrated unseriousness, insincerity and contemptuous disregard to the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Memorandum of Action (MOA) the Federal Government reached and signed with the union”.
” The legitimate demands of ASUU, which have been recurring since the 2009 FG and ASUU Collective Agreements broadly centred on:
Adequate funding and revitalization of public universities, University autonomy, and Payment of the legitimate entitlements and welfare due to university lecturers.”
It noted ” JAF supports all the demands of ASUU, including the demand for the adoption of UTAS (University Transparency and Accountability Solution) as opposed to the corruption and fraud- induced payment system called Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) that the FG imposed on the University system. We hold that the full implementation of these demands can guarantee improvement in the standard of university education, make it possible for children of the working class and poor masses to access university education and enhance improvement in working conditions of the lecturers.
Lauding ASUU for making the strike definite, by offering the ” Federal Government a 4-weeks lifeline during which it should implement all outstanding issues with ASUU”, it charged the organised Labour (Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to declare solidarity action in support of the strike in order to put pressure on the Government to immediately meet the demands of ASUU. We also call on the working people, students, youths, women, artisans and professionals, poor masses, etc, to join forces to support the demands of the strike action.
“JAF is prepared to organize with ASUU a series of mass activities to sensitize the public and mobilize mass support for their demands, and thereby call for a joint struggle of all unions in the education sector on their collective demands that should be anchored on Adequate Funding of Public Education and its democratic management.”
