Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Uyo branch, have expressed their displeasure over the nonchalant attitude of the Federal Government towards issues that concern public universities in Nigeria.
The coordinator of ASUU Calabar zone, Comrade Ikechukwu Okorie Igwenyi, stated this while addressing members before the kick-off of the protest march in front of the Student Affairs unit of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), recently.
Comrade Igwenyi said they joined their counterparts in a nationwide peaceful protest to sensitise the public on their grievances over the Federal Government’s insensitivity to their demands.
According to him, the Federal Government’s refusal to sign and implement the agreement on the negotiation of 2009 which was concluded in December 2024 amounted to further destruction of the education system in the country, threatening to embark on another round of nationwide strike should the government remain adamant.
He condemned the floating of the Federal Government’s Tertiary Institutions Staff Support Loan Scheme without consulting the union, rather than focusing on fulfilling the 2009 renegotiations.
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The zonal coordinator who described the loan scheme as a “poisoned chalice and unacceptable distraction”, vehemently rejected it and added that it was a way of impoverishing them the more as the loan’s repayment conditions were unrealistic, saying that even professors, whose salary at bar is less than 800,000 per month and about N9.1 million annually, could not repay a N10 million loan within 48 months.
Also speaking, the national financial secretary of the union and immediate-past zonal coordinator, Calabar, Comrade Happiness Uduk, said it was saddening that the government usually paid a deaf ear to issues bordering on universities whereas it would attend to matters concerning other sectors without any industrial action.
Comrade Uduak also the immediate-past chairperson of ASUU, UNIUYO branch, said the union set aside Tuesday, August 26, 2025, to “walk the streets all over the country to sensitise stakeholders over the insensitivity of government towards our union”.
She cited the recent salary increment of judiciary officers and the planned increase of allowances for political office-holders without embarking on any strike, regretting that it was unfortunate that for almost 16 years there had not been any renegotiation for lecturers’ salaries, which have remained unchanged to date.
Her words: “Borrowing from the words of our former zonal coordinator, Comrade Aniekan Brown, ‘it seems that our salaries are trying to measure up with Jesus, who is the only one we know to be the same yesterday, today and forever’.
“Comrades, we say no to this kind of treatment because there is no one who would make progress in the same position, nobody will make meaningful progress with the same remuneration.
“That is why we are saying enough is enough! “Instead of increasing our salaries or renegotiating our agreement, they are floating something that is a mockery to us”.
The national financial secretary who wondered where the government would get such a huge fund to run the loan scheme, maintained that it would be wrong to consider drawing it from TETFund, which she observed was not even enough to run the nation’s tertiary institutions.
During the protest, members were seen with placards bearing various inscriptions such as: ‘Govt. Please Sign and Implement our Renegotiated Agreement’, ‘Pay our Promotion Arrears’, Pay us Befitting Salary, not Loan’, ‘Pay us Decent Salaries’, ‘Our Salaries Are too Poor’, ‘We Are FG Lecturers, not Borrowers’ and ‘Our Public Varsities shouldn’t Suffer what Public Secondary Schools Have’.
The march progressed from the Town Campus to Annex before it hit the streets and terminated at the CBN Hall (in the Town Campus).
