Public universities remain shut as ASUU extends strike by 3 months

 

.Ngige begs lecturers to return to classroom

 

AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

 

 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing strike by 12 weeks.

 

The decision was reached after a meeting of the union’s national executive council (NEC) on Sunday at its University of Abuja secretariat.

 

In a statement issued after the meeting, Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, said the extension takes effect from Monday, May 9, 2022.

 

He said the extension is aimed at giving the government more time to satisfactorily resolve the issues.

 

“NEC was shocked that public universities have remained closed for about three months while members of the political class were busy purchasing expression of interest and nomination forms worth several millions of Naira in preparations for 2023 elections! Those in power turned their back on our degraded universities as they shuttle between Europe and America to celebrate the graduation of their children and wards from world class universities. This speaks volumes on the level of depravity, insensitivity, and irresponsibility of Nigeria’s opportunistic and parasitic political class,” the statement reads.

 

“NEC condemned Federal Government’s cavalier attitude towards the strike action in the last twelve weeks. Government’s resort to the use of starvation as a weapon for breaking the collective resolve of ASUU members and undermine our patriotic struggle to reposition public universities in Nigeria is ill-advised and may prove counterproductive.

 

“After extensive deliberations, noting 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 12.01a.m. on Monday, 9th May, 2022.

 

 

“NEC found the planned overseas trip organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities’ Spouses (CVCNUS) despicable and condemnable. The advertised five-day conference in Istanbul is a waste of scarce resources of our universities; it is insensitive and provocative, particularly at a time like this when lecturers are denied their salaries for daring to struggle to improve the lot of our public universities.”

 

 

Meanwhile, The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, has again called on members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to suspend their indefinite strike and resume work while the federal government continues to address their demands.

 

 

He disclosed this in his office while briefing journalists on the observance of the 19th National Productivity Day  and Conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award by the President on Thursday.

 

 

Dr. Ngige said as the conciliator of the labour dispute between the federal fovernment and the unions, he also urged the government to expedite action on the renegotiation of the conditions of service of the university workers, for the government to have a working document with ASUU.

 

 

“I have appealed to SSANU, NASU and NAAT to get back and open the universities so that when ASUU members come back, they will see a place to work. That is the situation now. In the Ministry of Labour and Employment, we are conciliators and arbitrators. Those on strike are not our workers.

 

 

“Their direct employers are the University and the Federal Ministry of Education. Any further queries on the ASUU strike should go to the Federal Ministry of Education and if possible, the National Universities Commission (NUC) who are their direct employers. We are here to conciliate them whenever either the employers or employees report to us that there is a breakdown in negotiations.”

 

 

 

Meanwhile, in commemoration of the 19th National Productivity Day (NPD), the federal government has listed some deserving individuals and organisations for the conferment of the National Productivity Order of Merit (NPOM) Award for 2019 and 2020.

 

 

The individual awardees include the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha; immediate past Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chike Ihekweazu; Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi; industrialist, Abdusamad Rabiu, and billionaire businessman, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jnr.