- We’ve Met All ASUU’s Demands, FG insists
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has described the response of the federal government to its demands “so far as a continuation of the unconscionable, mindless, and nonchalant attitude of the Nigerian ruling elite towards the proven path of national development which is education.”
ASUU’s conclusion is contained in a statement it issued at the end of its National Executive Council meeting held at its Comrade Festus Iyayi Complex National Secretariat, Main Campus of the University of Abuja on Sunday, March 13, 2022.
The statement entitled; “Update on ASUU Roll-Over the Strike,” signed by ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, noted that after a review of the reports on the engagements of ASUU’s Trustees and Principal Officers with the federal government, the NEC concluded that the “government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MOA) within the four-week roll-over strike period”.
The union, the statement continued, therefore resolved to continue with the for an addition eight weeks (two months) “to give Government more time to address all the issues in concrete terms so that our students will resume as soon as possible. The roll-over strike shall commence by 12.00am on Monday, 14th March, 2022.”
We’ve met all demands of ASUU – FG
Meanwhile the federal government on Monday insisted that it has met all the demands of the ASUU. Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said this in an interview with reporters on the sidelines of the commemoration of the 2022 Commonwealth Celebration in Abuja.
According to him, all the earned allowances as well as revitalisation funds had been released by the government.
“ASUU announced and we met and everything that they have demanded, we have done all of them including the earned allowances and the revitalisation fund; they chose to extend it for two months maybe,” the minister of state said.
ASUU’s full statement reads:
PRESS RELEASE
UPDATE ON ASUU ROLL-OVER THE STRIKE
- The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) held an emergency meeting on Sunday, 13th March 2022 at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja.
- The meeting was called to review developments since the Union declared a four weeks total and comprehensive roll-over strike action at the end of its NEC meeting at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos on 12th-13th February, 2022. The strike action came on the heels of Government’s failure to satisfactorily implement the Memorandum of Action (MOA) it signed with the Union in December 2020 on funding for revitalization of public universities (both Federal and States), renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), Earned Academic Allowances, State Universities, promotion arrears, withheld salaries, and non-remittance of third-party deductions.
- NEC noted that the Union’s leadership has held some interactive meetings with agents of government in the last four weeks that the strike action had lasted. However, NEC was disappointed that Government did not treat the matters involved with utmost urgency they deserved during the four-week period as expected of a reasonable, responsive, and well-meaning administration.
- NEC viewed Government’s response, so far, as a continuation of the
unconscionable, mindless, and nonchalant attitude of the Nigerian ruling elite towards the proven path of national development which is education.
- NEC acknowledged the intervention efforts, in various ways, by patriots and friends of genuine national development (students, parents, journalists, trade union leaders, civil society activists etc.) to expeditiously resolve the crisis which Government’s disposition had allowed to fester. However, ASUU, as a union of intellectuals, has historic obligations to make governments honour agreements.
- NEC, having taken reports on the engagements of the Trustees and Principal Officers with the Government, concluded that Government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MOA) within the four-week roll-over strike period and resolved that the strike be rolled over for another eight (8) weeks to give Government more time to address all the issues in concrete terms so that our students will resume as soon as possible. The roll-over strike shall commence by 12.00am on Monday, 14th March, 2022.
- Thank you.
Emmanuel Osodeke
President
13th March, 2022
