ASUU President speaks on threats of fresh strike action

The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke on Tuesday spoke concerning reports that the association will embark on a strike action soon.

Professor Osodeke told Ripples Nigeria via phone, that the government had failed to meet up with the agreement reached with ASUU, and that there is no definite position on a strike action for now.

He explained that lecturers had expected action from government but nothing has been done till date.

“We expected that the government fulfill their promise but they have failed to do that. We have not expressly said that we would go on strike because our association has structures and procedures. What we said is that we would be pushed to take action if the government doesn’t act in fulfillment of agreement reached with lecturers”

When asked if there has been any progress made after the warning issued by ASUU two days ago, Professor Osodeke said nothing has been forthcoming;

“We have not heard from them and they have not done anything after our statement, we will make consultations using our procedures and then arrive at a decision after doing that”

READ ALSO: ASUU announces plans to embark on fresh strike

When this reporter reminded Professor Osodeke that lecturers went on strike for nine months recently and wondered if they will be willing to do same again, the ASUU boss however noted that while they hope on government action, if there is a need to go on another strike action, there would not be any hesitation.

Speaking further, he stated that the action of ASUU is in the best interest of Nigerians because if public institutions are shutdown, the private schools cannot be afforded by all. He also claimed that some persons want public universities to shutdown which is why there is no concrete response.

Professor Osodeke disagreed with the government that the revitalization fund is with the Central Bank of Nigeria, even as he wondered why the government cannot ask the CBN which is under it to transfer money within a day,.

“The claim of the government is not true, why would you have the CBN under you and they cannot listen or transfer such funds from one account to another within a day. The Ministry of education is also under the federal government, so there should be no excuse” he concluded.

The ASUU President also noted that Nigerians will be updated as soon as a decision is arrived at by the association.

There are feelers that the ASUU is scheduled to meet with representatives of government later today to discuss on issues surrounding earlier agreements with the union.

It was gathered that the outcome of the meeting today will be communicated to principal officers before it gets to the national executive council of the academics.

A top source familiar with the issue noted that the union has not declared a strike action, but rather fired a warning to the government so as to ensure that action is taken.

It would be recalled that there has been a protracted disagreement between the academics and Nigerian government, a development that led to a nine months strike in 2020. The disagreement is further strengthened over issues bothering on funding of universities and ineffectiveness and discrepancies allegedly around the integrated payroll and personnel information system (IPPIS).

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