ASUU extends strike by 12 weeks

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced the extension of its ongoing strike for another 12 weeks.

ASUU made the announcement via a statement issued by its president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, on Monday.

Osodeke noted that the extension of the ongoing industrial action was to give Federal Government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues.

He added that the union took the decision after its National Executive Council meeting which started on Sunday night at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja.

Osodeke added that the extension of the strike takes effect from Monday, May 9, 2022.

The statement read: “NEC was shocked that public universities have remained closed for about three months while members of the political class were busy purchasing expression of interest and nomination forms worth several millions of Naira in preparations for 2023 elections!

“Those in power turned their back on our degraded universities as they shuttle between Europe and America to celebrate the graduation of their children and wards from world class universities. This speaks volumes on the level of depravity, insensitivity, and irresponsibility of Nigeria’s opportunistic and parasitic political class.

“NEC condemned Federal Government’s cavalier attitude towards the strike action in the last twelve weeks.

“Government’s resort to the use of starvation as a weapon for breaking the collective resolve of ASUU members and undermine our patriotic struggle to reposition public universities in Nigeria is ill-advised and may prove counterproductive.

“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 roll–over strike period declared on 14th March 2022, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for twelve 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.

“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 a lot of our public universities,” the ASUU president stated.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, had last week said the Federal Government would resume its negotiations with ASUU this week, with a view to ending the prolonged closure of Nigerian public universities.

Ngige made the disclosure during a meeting between the government side and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).

The demands of ASUU include the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed with government in December 2020 on funding for revitalisation of public universities (both federal and states), renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ ASUU Agreement, and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).

Other outstanding issues are earned academic allowances, promotion arrears, withheld salaries, non-remittance of third-party deductions, and rejection of UTAS that ASUU technical team developed to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

The Star