ASUU votes for one-month warning strike, to give details today

Academic activities in the nation’s public universities will once again be grounded for a whole month following the decision of the lecturer’s union to embark on a warning strike for the period to press home their demands for improved welfare package and better learning environment.

A report by Vanguard on Monday morning stated that after deliberations that dragged into the early hours of Monday, the National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, had voted to embark the one-month strike.

The national leadership of the Union is expected to hold a press conference later today to give details of the industrial action.

A source at the meeting said the strike was to allow the Federal Government to act on the lingering issues, failure to which the union would go on an indefinite strike.

It quoted a source at the meeting as saying, “We just want to give the government a long rope hoping that it would see the need to avoid a total paralysis of academic activities in the nation’s universities. We are parents too and have our children in the system but we cannot watch and allow the total collapse of education in the country.

“Our agitation is in the interest of all and if the system is made better, we will all enjoy it. Prominent personalities in the country have waded into the matter but the government seems recalcitrant. Our National President would explain more when he briefs the press later today.”

The union has been agitating for a number of demands including the payment of Earned Academic Allowance, revitalization fund, the replacement of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System, IPPIS, with the University Transparency and Accountability System UTAS, among others.