The Akure zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the federal government to urgently employ more lecturers in tertiary institutions across the country.
It said universities under its zone have lost over 40 percent of lecturers.
The new N48,000 minimum wage for workers in the nation that the federal government had suggested was also rejected by the ASUU Akure zone.
During a news conference in Akure, Prof. Adeola Egbetokun, the zone chairman of ASUU, called for the easing of the job ban.
Prof. Egbetokun claimed that despite the retirement or relocation of a number of academic staff members, the government has persisted in obstructing their replacements, in violation of university regulations.
“Some departments haven’t recruited a single additional staff member in nearly a decade, and the government fails to properly remunerate the few academic staff keeping the system from collapsing.
“We demand an end to the constraints of IPPIS (or New IPPIS) and an immediate unfreezing of necessary positions across all university departments.
“It is the considered view of ASUU-NEC that the federal government of Nigeria should immediately deploy the instrumentality of collective bargaining to conclude the social dialogue on the new minimum wage for the country as a first step.
“Governments at the Federal, State, and Council level should also take a critical look at all non-feasible policies and programmes sponsored by the international money lenders (the World Bank and it for instance ), especially with a view to reclaiming the country’s sovereignty and restoring the confidence of Nigerians in the money lenders countries.”
