Lecturers now teach students on empty stomachs – ASUU

ASUU President, Piwuna

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said that lecturers are teaching students on empty stomachs, warning that industrial actions were imminent as result of unfulfilled promises to the union by the Federal Government.

ASUU, in a statement signed by its National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, on Saturday, said it had been pushed to the wall, asking the government to act immediately to prevent a looming strike in public universities.

The union noted that the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, recently declared that “not again ever in this country will ASUU or tertiary institutions, trade unions, teachers, lecturers go on strike”.

According to the union, Alausa predicate his declaration on government’s strategy of “dialogue, maintaining a good relationship with union heads (leaders) and meeting the demands of the unions”.

While ASUU said it shared in the minister’s optimism about dialogue and maintaining relationships, the union however, said the government needed to go beyond words and act on outstanding issues.

the statement reads partly, “Feelers across campuses indicate that lecturers in Nigerian public universities are, to put it mildly, not happy. They teach students on empty stomachs.

“They conduct research in libraries and laboratories bereft of essential electronic and physical journals, books, chemicals and reagents. They engage with communities and agencies in rickety cars while encumbered by utility bills, children’s fees, house rents, family

upkeep and a legion of other unmet responsibilities.

“Yet elite Nigerians are quick to blame the universities for “producing unemployable

graduates” and failure to initiate innovative research for addressing the country’s problems our members feel forgotten, shamed and demoralized by past and present government.”