Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on Tuesday embarked on a nationwide protest to highlight what they described as the Federal Government’s persistent neglect of its long-standing demands.
At the University of Jos, members of the union staged a demonstration before addressing journalists, where they announced their outright rejection of the recently introduced Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund loan scheme.
ASUU branch chairperson, Joseph Molwus, said the initiative was not a solution but a deliberate attempt to push lecturers deeper into financial hardship.
According to him, the loan scheme was nothing but a “poison chalice” designed to impoverish university teachers rather than address the reality of their economic situation.
He argued that lecturers do not need loans but rather the payment of their legitimate entitlements that the government has failed to honour.
“How can the government ask us to borrow money to pay for healthcare, school fees and basic needs when it is still owing us withheld salaries, allowances, and arrears?” he asked.
At the University of Lagos, ASUU members who joined the nationwide protest demanded better treatment of lecturers and the education sector.
The placard-bearing lecturers demanded the Federal Government’s payment of arrears, improved welfare and renegotiation of the 2009 FG-ASUU agreement.