The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has explained the only option that it is left within its dispute with the Federal Government.
The lecturers’ union said that the only option is continued industrial action until everything is sorted out.
According to a tweet post by ASUU on its official Twitter account on Monday, March 7, 2022, this was made known by ASUU Chairman UNICAL chapter, Dr John Edor, where he insisted that the strike must be sustained until all issues raised by it are resolved.
Edor noted that with the resolution of these issues, the incessant strike will not become recurrent or yearly.
This is coming barely a few days after ASUU, who while condemning President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to donate $1 million to Afghanistan at a time university lecturers are on strike, vowed not to enter into any renegotiation with the Federal Government over their disagreements.
Read: How ASUU strike is killing campus businesses
What the ASUU Chairman UNICAL Chapter is saying
Edor in his statement said, ‘’The only option is continued industrial action until everything is sorted out. In fact, the strike should be sustained until all issues raised by ASUU are completely resolved so that strikes will not become recurrent or yearly.’’
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had earlier disclosed that the panel which was constituted to look at the issues between the federal government and ASUU will use 6 weeks to look into the demands placed by ASUU.
Read: ASUU strike: Students bemoan frequent interruptions to school calendar
What you should know
- Recall that ASUU, had on February 14, embarked on a 4-week total and comprehensive strike to press home their unresolved demands on the federal government.
- Some of the lecturers’ demands include funding for the revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution and promotion arrears.
- Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, and the inconsistencies in the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
- There has been accusations and counter-accusations between the federal government and ASUU as the blame game has continued since the later went on strike as they both accuse each other of insincerity.
- The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had in an earlier update, said that the federal government had so far paid over N92 billion as earned allowances and revitalisation fee to federal owned universities across the country.
- ASUU had also while condemning the president’s donation to the Afghanistan, which was meant to cater for the needs of Afghan people, including women and children, accused the federal government of being unwilling to pay the outstanding funds.