The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared an indefinite strike.
The ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, made this known in a statement on Monday, August 29, 2022.
He said NEC observed with regret that the union had experienced a lot of deceit at the highest level in the last five and half years, saying the federal government engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiation without a display of utmost fidelity.
“In view of the foregoing, and following extensive deliberations on government’s response to the resolution of February 14, 2022, so far, NEC concluded that the demands of the union had not been satisfactorily addressed.
“Consequently, NEC resolved to transmute the roll-over strike to a comprehensive, total, and indefinite strike action beginning from 12.01am Monday 29th August 2022,” the statement read in part.
It added that: “NEC acknowledges with appreciation past and current efforts by eminent Nigerians and groups to mediate in the lingering crisis. Our union remains open to reasonable engagements as we have always done.”
……‘NO DEMANDS MET YET’……
ASUU accused the government, particularly the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, of peddling misinformation by claiming that all issues with the union had been resolved except the payment of their salaries.
“All contentious issues between the government and ASUU had been settled except the quest for members’ salaries for the period of the strike to be paid, a demand that President Buhari has flatly rejected,” Mr Adamu had said in a recent media briefing.
However, contrary to claims, ASUU said the government has not met any of its demands as contained in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed to suspend its 9-month strike in 2020.
The union said: “For the avoidance of doubt, however, none of the issues that forced our Union to resume the suspended strike as listed in the December 2020 FGN-ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) has been satisfactorily addressed by the Government to date.
“The draft renegotiated FGN-ASUU Agreement (second draft) remains unsigned; the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) has not been adopted and deployed to replace the discredited Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS); and the White Papers on Visitation Panels to Federal Universities, if ready as claimed by Government more than six months ago, are nowhere to be found.
“Similarly, Government has not delivered on the promised balance of one tranche of the Revitalisation Fund more than one year after, the outstanding two tranches of the Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) have not been released; and nothing has since happened on the promised support for amendment to the Law of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to stem the tide of proliferation of universities especially by the State Governments.
It’s should be noted that ASUU commenced its ongoing strike on February 14, 2022, after the Federal Government refused to meet some of its demands including, 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
