ASUU Strike: University Students To Know Fate Thursday As Union Meets

The National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will hold a meeting on Thursday to reach a decision on the ongoing strike by the lecturers.

Branches of the union are also set to begin consultations today (Wednesday) on the possibility of ending the strike.

The development comes after the Speaker of the House of Assembly, Femi Gbajabiamila, held a series of meetings with the ASUU leadership as well as the FG to help resolve the issue and bring the strike to an end.

ASUU’s legal representative, Femi Falana SAN, had also said on Monday that the strike would be over in a matter of days.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14th of 2022 to press home its numerous demands to the Federal Government which include payment of earned allowances and salaries for lecturers, improved funding and maintenance for tertiary institutions, the adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability system (UTAS) for salary payment instead of the government’s Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), the renegotiation of the ASUU FG 2009 agreement, among others.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had taken the union to the National Industrial Court in a bid to have the court order them to call off the strike.

The court granted the motion filed by the FG, ruling on September 21 that the union should call off the strike immediately.

Unsatisfied with the ruling, ASUU took the matter to the Court of Appeal for review but the court asked the union to call off its strike before it can grant its request to appeal the ruling.

The court gave ASUU seven days to file an appeal after adhering to the ruling of the Industrial Court.