Fresh strike looms in varsities as ASUU deadline expires

Members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities are warming up for another strike as the union has told Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible for their next action after August 31 deadline.

ASUU decried the government’s failure to honour an agreement it signed with them and hinted that it could resume the industrial action after a meeting this week.

ASUU spoke on a plan to hold an emergency National Executive Council this week with its leaders and principal officials to decide its members’ next line of action. The union said it will follow-up its NEC meeting with consultations with all its chapters should the government fail to implement its promises to his aggrieved lecturers.

The union’s latest threat followed the expiration of the August 31 deadline issued to the Federal Government to meet its demands.

The Federal Government has not spoken on the latest agitations by the university lecturers.

ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke said the NEC would convene to look at available options and take a position.

The lecturers called off their eight-month strike in December last year after ASUU signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government.

After several complaints of breach of agreement, the FG team, led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, met with the lecturers on August 2 to review the level of implementation of the MoU.

Ngige said the Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria would release N30 billion as revitalisation fund to universities the following week.

Osodeke however accused the government of failing to release the money and implement other agreements after the August meeting and alleged government officials had stopped picking calls from ASUU leaders.

Prof Osodeke said, “ASUU never proposed a strike; we said if government did not meet all our demands by the end of August, the union would meet and consider the action to take.

“But the country should hold the government responsible for any action we take and that was what we said we didn’t mention embarking on strike.”

Chairman of ASUU, University of Ilorin, UNILORIN branch, who is also a member of NEC of the union, Prof. Moyosore Ajao, said the government was taking the issue with levity.
He said, “By midnight on Tuesday (today), the deadline given the government to meet our demands would lapse. As we talk, it is not yet midnight and anything can still happen.

“However, in the event of the government not meeting our demands within the period given, the national leadership of the union knows what to do. It will call a NEC meeting.”