The demonstration saw lecturers and other academic staff marching from the ASUU Secretariat on the Ugbowo main campus to the office of the Vice Chancellor, chanting solidarity songs and carrying placards with various inscriptions demanding the fulfillment of the agreement.
The protest disrupted normal academic proceedings for several hours as staff members made their way across the university premises before converging at the administrative block. They were received by senior university officials, including the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academics), Professor Victor Igbineweka, and the Registrar, Ademola Bobola.
Speaking during the protest, ASUU UNIBEN Chairman, Ray Chikogu, expressed frustration over the prolonged delay in reviewing the agreement, which was initially signed in 2009.
“In 2009, we entered into an agreement with the federal government and agreed as well that every three years, that agreement will be up for review. As we speak, it is sixteen years after that agreement was signed, meaning that that agreement ought to have been reviewed five times over,” Chikogu said.
“In this country, we are the only group of people who have beensubjected to that kind of treatment and we are saying we can’t take it anymore. We want to tell Nigerians that we have been on the same salary for sixteen years. It has never happened anywhere in the world; it is only in Nigeria that lecturers and academics are treated with so much disdain,” he added.
He lamented the poor funding of the education sector in Nigeria and called on the government to prioritize education like other nations across the globe.
“If you go around the world, countries are investing in their education. It is only in Nigeria we allocate paltry sums to education. But we are saying that we will not let education die in Nigeria and so the federal government must rise up to its responsibilities,” Chikogu declared.
He further warned that the union would not hesitate to shut down the university system entirely if their demands remain unmet.
In response, Registrar Ademola Bobola assured the protesting lecturers that their grievances would be forwarded to the appropriate authorities, emphasizing that efforts were being made by the current administration to address the issues raised.
“All they have said would be put together and sent to the federal government because nobody wants ASUU to go on strike again,” Bobola stated, expressing optimism in the education-focused stance of the current administration and its minister.
