The Bauchi zone of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) says President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime is forcing university lecturers to go on indefinite strike over its failure to implement the 2009 agreement.

“Should we embark on strike, know that we are forced, and government should be held responsible and accountable,” said ASUU zonal coordinator Lawan Abubakar at a press conference on Tuesday in Jos.

The union had on November 14 issued a three-week ultimatum to Mr Buhari’s regime to do the needful or face an indefinite strike.

“We are also pained to inform the public that ASUU has activated its process of resuming the conditionally suspended strike immediately after the expiration of the three-week ultimatum,” added the ASUU coordinator.

Mr Abubakar, represented by his predecessor, Nanmwa Voncir, noted that the agreement was renegotiated in May 2020, yet the regime remained adamant about not implementing it.

The ASUU coordinator advised the regime to implement the 2009 agreement with the union to avert a strike by its members.

Mr Abubakar further stated that Mr Buhari regime’s lackadaisical attitude towards addressing ASUU demands would force the union to take the drastic decision of embarking on an indefinite strike.

He explained that the union’s demands were not personal but aimed at lifting the standard of university education in the country.

“The Bauchi zone of ASUU feels that the government has been tolerated enough, and we cannot continue to entertain its officials who are failing to do the needful for over the years,” Mr Abubakar stressed. “Impending strike action can be avoided if government officials can do what they failed to do in the last one year.”

He added, “We are, once again, pained to bring these issues to the public domain because more than a year after suspending the 2020 strike, little progress has been made towards implementation.”

Mr Abubakar, who decried the sorry state of public universities in Nigeria, called on parents, students, and the public to continue to understand and support the union in its bid to regain the lost glory of public universities in Nigeria.

“These universities are public properties, and as stakeholders in the Nigerian project, we have a role to play, regaining its lost glory. Today, our public universities don’t have infrastructures; our laboratories and other facilities are obsolete,” the ASUU coordinator further stated. “We are pretending to be teaching, and the students are pretending to be learning.”

(NAN)