Following the failure to reach a consensus with the Federal Government, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing strike by 12 weeks. This is coming two months after the first phase of the strike commenced.
Investors King recalls that ASUU had previously gone on a warning strike which commenced on February 14, 2022 and was meant to come to an end on Monday, May 9, 2022.
In a statement on Monday, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke revealed that the decision to extend the strike was unanimously taken during the association’s National Executive Council meeting, which commenced on Sunday night at the University of Abuja’s Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat.
According to him, the decision is aimed at giving the government adequate time to resolve all remaining concerns satisfactorily.
He noted that the NEC had earlier authorized the national leadership to commence on an indefinite strike if no significant results were achieved during the eight-week warning strike.
“After extensive deliberations, noting the Government’s failure to live up to its responsibilities and speedily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the additional eight-week roll–over strike period declared on 14th March 2022, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for twelve weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues.
“The roll-over strike action is with effect from 12.01 a.m. on Monday, 9th May 2022″, the statement read.
Investors King gathered that while ASUU was on its warning strike, other university staff unions also went on strike. They include: Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU); The National Association of Academic Technologists; (NAAT), and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Allied institutions, (NASU).
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has vowed to disrupt all political events by the two major parties, as well as all candidate selection activities if the ASUU continues with the strike action.
The association condemned politicians for being unconcerned about students’ situation while being preoccupied with their own ‘selfish and irrational quest’ to contest for presidency.
In view of this, students from various institutions have continued to stage protests in Ibadan, Abuja and Lagos, calling for the strike to end, as well as the reopening of universities.
