Noble Youths Mass Support Association, a group of youths in Abuja has cried out on the Academic Staff Union of Universities to take heed to the resumption order that was given on Wednesday by the National Industrial Court. Mr Godwin Onmonya, the National Coordinator of the group,cried out on behalf of the group and other Nigerian students while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria in Gwagwalada, Abuja.
He complained about the negative consequences the strike has had and is having on students. Earlier in the year, ASUU had gone on strike which is now 7 months old. The union, through its embarked on this nationwide warning strike since February 14 to press home its demands, the union has also insisted that its demand be met before the strike action is suspended.
Some of the lecturers’ demands include funding for the Revitalisation of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and alleged inconsistency in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System and promotion arrears.
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However, students through the National Association of Nigeria Students started a series of protests last week starting from blocking the Lagos-Ibadan expressway to blocking the entrance to the International Airport Lagos, threatening to block other major roads, if the demands were not met by the government.
Similarly, Mr Luka Ayuba, a parent in Gwagwalada Area Council, whose child was studying veterinary medicine at the University of Abuja, said that the strike had distracted his child a lot and has made him shift focus.
“After each episode of strike, the children are no more focused and they end up not graduating within the stipulated years. “My only pain is that the people in government are not feeling it because their own children are not in public schools but abroad or in private schools,” he said.
The zonal coordinator of ASUU in Abuja has however said that the union will not resume academic activities until the renegotiated 2009 agreement was signed, implemented and the University Transparency and Accountability Solution deployed.
