Due to pending and outstanding demands that have not been addressed, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has given itself 21 days to initiate a new statewide strike.
Following the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the University of Ibadan, a notice was released that included this information.
“This is a strike notice, not an ultimatum. We are going to go on strike after giving them 21 days’ notice.
“We are trying to make sure that all of our actions are done according to the law, which is why we are putting out the notice as required by labor laws,” a NEC source told The PUNCH.
Remember how ASUU had threatened to go on strike in response to agreements made with the federal government not being implemented?
On June 26, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, invited the union to a meeting to deliberate on the lingering issues affecting universities and to avert the planned strike.
The national president of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke who spoke on the outcome of the meeting said the agreements reached with the Federal Government had not been implemented.
“At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we will meet to see the progress the government has made.
“We will also see what we will do next if the government fail to implement the agreements reached.”
The ASUU president said some of the demands included the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.
He said the agreements had lingered for over six years, and the government had yet to implement them.
Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years, and nothing had been done about it.
On the issue of the revitalisation fund, he said they agreed on the Needs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion yearly for five years.
“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation funds to upgrade our universities to standard so that we can have students and lecturers from outside the country,” he said.
Oshodeke added that the government had yet to stop the proliferation of universities, adding that many new universities were being approved without funds to run them.
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