Again, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has extended the ongoing Strike by four weeks.
Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, President of the union, disclosed this in a statement yesterday, he said the decision was to give the government enough time to resolve all outstanding issues with the lecturers.
The president of the union noted that the body conveyed an emergency National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the association at the University of Abuja on Sunday. Osodeke said the extension is to take effect from the 1st of August.
The statement read: “Following extensive deliberations and taking cognizance of government’s past failures to abide by its own timelines in addressing issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action, MOA, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for four weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues. The roll-over strike action is with effect from 12.01 am on Monday, 1st August 2022,”.
An emergency meeting of the National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, was held at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja, on Sunday, July 31, 2022.
The meeting was called to review developments since NEC’s resolution to extend its roll-over strike action by another 12 weeks with effect from May 2022″.
Speaking further in the statement, ASUU said, “NEC viewed with seriousness the recent directive given by the President and Visitor to all Federal Universities that the Minister of Education, in consultation with other government officials, should resolve the lingering crisis and report to him within two weeks.
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NEC acknowledged the growing understanding of the issues and the groundswell of support for the union’s principled demand for globally competitive university education in Nigeria. Nigerian universities must not be reduced to constituency projects that merely exist on paper, and our scholars must be incentivized to stay back and do what they know best, here in Nigeria.
“NEC appreciated the historic nationwide protest of July 26 and 27, 2022, organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress in collaboration with civil society organizations to further create awareness of the antics of the Nigerian ruling class to destroy public education. ASUU renews its commitment to the NLC’s struggles in championing the cause of Nigeria’s working and suffering people.
“NEC observed that the non-signing of the draft renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement more than one month after it was concluded by the Professor Nimi Briggs-led committee is further testing the patience of ASUU members nationwide.”
According to Vanguard, The Federal Government did not, however, react to the extension of the strike by ASUU by another four weeks.
The Director of Public Affairs, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Ben Goong, when called on phone, sent a text message that our correspondent should send a text message, which was done, and at press time, he did not reply.
He had however said a couple of weeks ago that he was not given the mandate to speak on matters relating to the ASUU strike.
In response to the incessant strike, parents, under the auspices of the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria, NAPTAN, have called for a quick resolution of the face-off.
The National President, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, said: “We must get to the end of this issue as fast as possible. Our children have stayed at home for no justifiable reasons for too long.
The government should come out with their own offers so that the striking workers would know what to talk about, and arrive at an agreement”.
