The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing strike for another 12 weeks. This according to them is to give the government enough time to resolve all outstanding issues with the striking lecturers.
The long-drawn battle between the union and the federal government over salaries, wages, and other benefits led to strike action on Feb 14, making public universities shut nationwide.
Earlier today, the union’s president, Emmanuel Osodeke, announced the extension of its three-month prolonged strike by an additional three months, at the ASUU headquarters at the University of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital territory.
ASUU in a statement titled: “Update on ASUU roll-over strike”, berated the Government for failure to satisfactorily implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it signed with the Union in December 2020 on renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), funding for revitalization of public universities (both Federal and States), proliferation and governance issues in State Universities, promotion arrears, withheld salaries (owed for over 20 months in some cases), and Non-emittance of third-party deductions.
It expressed disappointment over the three-man Committee set up by the President on Feb 1st, 2022 to resolve the lingering issues between ASUU and FGN.
“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.”
Meanwhile, hundred of students have gathered today at the entrance of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka to protest the lingering ASUU strike.
