By Sunday Emmanuel

The President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Christopher Piwuna has expressed his support for the demands of the Joint Action Committee of NASU and SSANU.

He made this assertion virtually at a monthly impact dialogue organised by the Education Writers’ Association of Nigeria (EWAN) titled “Delayed Salaries, FG Workers’ Agreement: Averting Impending Crisis in Nigerian Universities.”

“It is very unkind and unfair for the government to keep SSANU, NASU, and NAAT in the cold for four months after signing our own agreement,” he said.

He further described the delay as demoralizing while affirming ASUU’s stance with the union.

“It will be very demoralizing for me, for example, to continue to prepare salaries for my colleagues in the university when I don’t even know whether my own agreement is going to be signed or not,” he said

“And so ASUU would want to state in very clear terms and in the clearest terms possible, that we stand with SSANU, we stand with NASU, we stand with NAAT to ensure that their collective bargaining process is ended on the table that it started.”

“Even though this position is not part of our agreement, it’s not part of what we signed with the government, I think for fairness and justice, it is very important for the government to conclude with other unions without further delay,” he added.

He also used this opportunity to express his displeasure over the delay in salaries that ASUU has been experiencing in the last four months, even with the signing of the agreement, declaring that ASUU is totally against such practice.

Recall that SSANU and NASU, under the backing of the Joint Action Committee (JAC), had declared an indefinite strike on Friday, May 1st, protesting the Federal Government’s delay in signing a new agreement with them following the long-standing 2009 Agreement renegotiation.

Credit: Nigeria Tribune