ASUU Reacts To FG Order To Reopen Campuses; Says Strike Continues Until Demands Are Met
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has insisted that its members across the country are still on industrial action and therefore the Federal Government’s directive to the Vice-Chancellors to reopen universities is meaningless to the union.
The Nigerian government had earlier in a letter issued through the National Universities Commission (NUC), addressed to Vice Chancellors, Pro-Chancellors and Chairman governing boards directed immediate re-opening of Universities for students to return to classroom.
The government in the letter mandated that the Vice Chancellors must “ensure that ASUU members immediately resume/commence lectures; Restore the daily activities and routines of the various University campuses.”
But the ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview, said they (ASUU members) were not bothered about the directive.
Osodeke said, as far as ASUU and its members across the country were concerned, public universities in the country had not been closed down by anybody including ASUU, and it is only that ASUU members are staying away from classrooms to press home their demands from the Federal Government.
“So, we are not bothered about whether Federal Government directed VCs to reopen schools or not. So, we are still on strike and so we shall remain until the Federal Government do what is right and good for the public universities in the country,” Osodeke stressed.
Recall that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its ongoing nationwide strike.
It reported that the umbrella body of the lecturers in public universities had declared a warning strike on February 14, to force the Nigerian Government to implement agreements it earlier signed with the union.
The agreement stipulated how university education would be funded for better improvement.
The strike has since rolled over and is now in its seventh month following the government’s failure to implement all the agreements.
Several meetings between ASUU and the Federal Government have ended in a deadlock.
Consequently, the Federal Government went to court to challenge the strike.
The government through its counsel, James Igwe, prayed the court for an interlocutory injunction restraining ASUU from taking further steps as regards the strike, pending the determination of the substantive suit.
