ASUU To Begin 2-day Meeting, Take Final Decision On Strike Sunday

• ASUU had suspended the planned strike as ₦22.1bn earned allowances was paid to lecturers in federal universities…

EKO HOT BLOG reports that the National Executive Committee of the Academic Staff Union of Universities will commence a two-day meeting at the University of Lagos, Akoka, today, to finalise the union’s decision on an impending strike.

It was gathered that ASUU will make the final decision on the strike – to be reached by voting – known at the end of the meeting on Sunday.

Read also: ASUU Accuses FG Of Paying Lip Service To Its Promises

The union had expressed grievances over the failure of the Federal Government to fulfill some of the agreements it made as far back as 2009. ASUU had on November 15, 2021 given the Federal Government a three-week ultimatum over the failure to meet the demands.

The lecturers threatened to embark on another round of industrial action following the alleged “government’s unfaithfulness” in the implementation of the Memorandum of Action it signed with the union, leading to the suspension of the 2020 strike action.

After the union’s National Executive Council meeting at the University of Abuja on November 13 and 14, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, lamented that despite meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on October 14, 2021, on issues, including funding for revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution, promotion arrears, renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement, and the inconsistencies in Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system payment, none of its demands had been met.

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Following the threat, the Minister of State for Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, promised that the union would be paid.

A few weeks after, ASUU suspended the planned strike as ₦22.1bn earned allowances was paid to lecturers in federal universities.

On the heels of the union’s renewed agitations, the co-chairmen of the National Inter-religious Council, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar III, and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Dr Samson Ayokunle, visited the President Muhammadu Buhari, last month over the lack of implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding the government signed with ASUU in 2009 and others.

At the meeting, Buhari said the government remained committed to fulfilling the promises made to ASUU. The President also stated that he had mandated Ngige, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, and his (Buhari’s) Chief of Staff, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, to look into the demands of the union.

But Osodeke, while responding, had insisted that the Federal Government could not be trusted despite the promise of the President.

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