ASUU May Begin Strike Wednesday, Accuses FG Of Reneging On Agreement

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has said it is ready to commence a new strike as the Federal Government had failed to implement the agreement it entered into with the academic body.

ASUU issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the government to reach out to them or they would embark on new strike.

The ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, issued the warning in an interview with The Punch.

“We signed an agreement and even in May, we reached a final agreement; this is August and nothing has been implemented. Does it make any sense? We are giving them till the end of August and after that, we start the procedures,” he said.

ASUU’s last strike lasted from March 2020 till December 2020, with both parties (ASUU and the FG) reaching an agreement which led to the suspension of the strike on December 24 2020.

Osodeke revealed that the FG had failed to implement the agreements reached. He also said the FG no longer responds to their calls and that it had stopped reaching out to ASUU as well.

“The government has refused to reach out to us. Government officials have stopped. In fact, they don’t take our calls again. Nigerians should tell the government to do what they agreed to do”, he said.

Some of the issues that led to the previous strike bordered on revitalisation of universities, payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), renegotiation of a 2009 agreement, and visitation panels for universities, among others.

The union also proposed the use of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) platform for payment of lecturers’ salaries in place of the controversial IPPIS being used for civil servants.

After a meeting with the FG earlier in the month, Osodeke said the Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) insisted that UTAS must be re-presented to the end users.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had also assured ASUU that the N22 billion earned allowance captured in the 2021 supplementary budget would soon be accessed by university workers at that meeting.