UNIBEN Lecturers Join Nationwide ASUU Protest Over 2009 Agreement

Academic activities were on Tuesday disrupted at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) as members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) joined a nationwide one-day protest over the non-implementation of the 2009 agreement with the Federal Government.

The protest, which took place simultaneously at the Ugbowo and Ekheuan campuses, saw lecturers and other academic staff march from the ASUU hall on the Ugbowo main campus to the office of the Vice Chancellor.

They carried placards with various inscriptions, chanting solidarity songs as they demanded the full implementation of the renegotiated 2009 agreement.

At the Vice Chancellor’s office, the protesters were received by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Prof. Victor Igbineweka, and the Registrar, Ademola Bobola, who assured them that their grievances would be communicated to the federal authorities.

Speaking during the demonstration, the ASUU Chairman of UNIBEN, Dr. Ray Chikogu, lamented that the union had been on the same salary structure for 16 years, contrary to the agreement reached with the government.

“In 2009, we entered into an agreement with the federal government and agreed that every three years, that agreement would be up for review. As we speak, it is 16 years after that agreement was signed, meaning that agreement ought to have been reviewed five times,” he said.

Chikogu added that lecturers in Nigeria had been treated with disdain, unlike their counterparts in other parts of the world where governments were investing in education.

“We want to tell Nigerians that we have been on the same salary for 16 years; it has never happened anywhere in the world. If you go around the world, countries are investing in their education; it is only in Nigeria that we allocate paltry sums to education.

” But we are saying we will not let education die in Nigeria, and so the federal government must rise up to its responsibilities,” he declared.

He warned that if the government failed to act, the union would have no option but to shut down universities indefinitely until its demands were met.

Responding, Registrar Bobola said the institution’s management would convey ASUU’s demands to the Federal Government, stressing that “nobody wants ASUU to go on strike again.” He expressed optimism that the present administration, through the Minister of Education, appeared committed to repositioning the sector.