Finally, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared indefinite strike over unresolved issues with the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Having seen that it members across the country were getting increasingly frustrated, distracted and disenchanted, the union has decided to opt for strike action starting from 13th August, 2017. The resolution to embark on indefinite strike was agreed at the emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) which took place on Saturday, 12th August,2017.
To justify the stand of the union, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said: "our members across the country were getting increasingly frustrated, distracted and disenchanted. It became evident that their patience had been tasked beyond reasonable limits and government's insensitivity imposed severe burden on the leadership of the union."
We gathered that the union had tried both dialogue and other possible methods to get their concerns resolved but to no avail. The issue has lingered for too long, it was recalled that ASUU even embarked on a six month strike between July and December 2013 which was suspended when government signed an MoU with the union. The union also embarked on one week warning strike in November 2016 to press for the implementation of 2013 MoU.
The union is grieved by the Government's failure to implement the understanding reached by both parties (the union and the Federal Government) based on the intervention by the leadership of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
We also gathered that of all the items contained in the MoU, Only the N200b out of N1.3tr of the Public Universities Revitalization ( Needs Assessment) fund was released. In addition, the union has also met with the 2009 Agreement Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC), and had written several letters with press releases and communiques on the outstanding issues to no avail.
The Executive Council, NEC of ASUU met at the University of Abuja on August 12, 2017 to consider the result of a referendum from all branches and to deliberate on ways of convincing the government to implement the outstanding aspects of the 2009 and the MoU of 2013. Hence, the union has decided to embark on indefinite strike. During the strike there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in all its branches across the country..
According to Ogunyemi, the outstanding issues with the Federal Government include:
- Payment of salaries
- Non-Payment of earned academic allowances
- Non releases of operational License of NUPEMCO
- Non implementation of the provisions of the 2014 pension reform Act with respect to retired professors and their salaries
- Removal of Universities Staff Schools from funding by government
- Funds for the revitalisation of public universities.