Strike: We‘ve met 80% of ASUU’s demands, FG claims

As Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Monday, further extended it’s over six months old strike,the federal government has faulted the action of the university lecturers’ union.

Government said the action was not justified given that it had met 80 percent of the demands of the union.

The umbrella union of lecturers of the nation’s public universities, had earlier on Monday, again, extended the strike, after accusing the federal government of failure to live up to its term in the renegotiation of the 2009 agreement it signed with it. The action of ASUU came after its National Executive Council, NEC meeting which took place at its University of Abuja Secretariat.

Although, the union was yet to come out with official statement or address the media on the fallouts of its meeting which began late Sunday and stretched into early Monday, some members who spoke in secrecy, disclosed that the meeting ended with a resolution to go on indefinite strike.

A member of the NEC told Vanguard that a formal position of the union in respect of the NEC meeting would be communicated through ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who he noted, was the person with the responsibility to do so.

“We resolved in our just concluded NEC meeting that we should make the ongoing strike indefinite since the federal government has failed to show any commitment to addressing the grey areas that led us to this action. Our president,as usual, would communicate this among others decisions to the public through the media,” he said, refusing to speak further.

Reacting to the development, the federal government said the FG had addressed 80 percent of the union’s demands, noting that th the extension of strike was unreasonable.

The Federal Ministry of Education, speaking through its Director of Press and Public Relations, Bem Goong, said: ”If you bring some demands and almost 80% have been attended to, there is no need to drag the strike anymore.”

According to him, “It is unreasonable for the strike to be lingering since the government has worked towards fulfilling most of the demands.”

Goong,who said the federal government had deployed all measures to end the strike, said: “As regards the next steps, the government has already inaugurated a committee to harmonize the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System,U3PS.

He explained that,” This will ensure that the government will pay with only one payment platform that will harmonize all the technical peculiarities.”

Recall that the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu Adamu, had last week, claimed that government had resolved most of the demands ASUU.

Among the demands addressed, according to Adamu, was the release of N50 billion for the payment of earned allowances for academic and non-academic and non-academic staff of universities.

Recall also that the ongoing strike which had been rolled over in the past, began on February 14th, 2022,after parties failed to reach agreement.