ASUU extends strike by another 12 weeks
Hope of resumption by the student has been dashed again, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) extended its strike by 12 weeks.
The academic body took the decision at an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) held at ASUU Secretariat in Abuja.
The emergency meeting, which had in attendance principal officers and branch chairmen, started on Sunday and ended early Monday morning.
Members of the union had embarked on a one-month strike on February 14 over the failure of the Nigerian Government to honour the various agreements reached with them.
Some of ASUU’s demands include the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the UTAS payment platform for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.
Following the expiration of the initial four-week warning strike, the union had gone ahead to declare additional eight weeks of industrial action, saying that it was giving the government more time to attend to its needs.
ASUU, in a statement issued by the National President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said after a review of the situation, they decided to roll over the strike by another 12 weeks.
It read in part: “NEC noted with serious disappointment that the three-man Committee set up by the President and Commander- in- Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 1st February, 2022 to resolve the lingering issues between ASUU and FGN has not called a single meeting to date.
“NEC was equally disappointed that ASUU’s only meeting with the Professor Nimi Briggs-led Renegotiation Committee did not reflect the expected level of understanding, preparation and clarity that undergird collective bargaining going by the Committee’s confession of ‘going about consulting stakeholders’.
“Unless urgent steps are taken to redirect the Committee on concluding a draft Agreement that has been pending since May 2021, its activities may end up as another wild goose chase.
“NEC condemned the provocative statements of some government functionaries and salutes the Nigerian Labour Congress, patriotic students’ groups and civil society organisations who have taken steps towards resolving the current labour dispute with the Nigeria government.
“NEC found the planned overseas trip organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities’ Spouses (CVCNUS) despicable and condemnable.
“The advertised five-day conference in Istanbul is a waste of scarce resources of our universities; it is insensitive and provocative, particularly at a time like this when lecturers are denied their salaries for daring to struggle to improve the lot of our public universities.
“After extensive deliberations, noting Government’s failure to live up to its responsibilities and speedily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the additional eight-week rollover strike period declared on 14th March 2022, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for 12 weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues.
“The roll-over strike action is with effect from 12.01a.m. on Monday, 9th May, 2022.”
