Breaking: ASUU declares fresh strike for 12 weeks

Again the Association of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared 12 weeks fresh strike after it ended 3 months warning strike on Monday.

The Union declared the strike on Monday after it’s meeting of Nigeria National Executive Council (NEC) on Sunday at its University of Abuja secretariat.

In a statement after the meeting by the President of ASUU, Comrade Emmanuel Osodeke, said, the fresh strike takes effect from Monday, May 9, 2022.

The fresh strike was at the backdrop of government’s inability to resolve the industrial impasse, which the Union said, the 12 weeks would enable the Federal government time to satisfactorily resolve issues.

ASUU expressed shock that the political class were purchasing expression of interest and nomination forms worth several millions of naira, to contest 2023 general election, while the APC-led government could not resolve the crisis.

The Union accused politicians and public servants of shuttling between Europe and US to celebrate graduation of their children leaving Nigerian Universities to rot.

“This speaks volumes on the level of depravity, insensitivity, and irresponsibility of Nigeria’s opportunistic and parasitic political class,” the statement reads.

“NEC condemned Federal Government’s cavalier attitude towards the strike action in the last twelve weeks. Government’s resort to the use of starvation as a weapon for breaking the collective resolve of ASUU members and undermine our patriotic struggle to reposition public universities in Nigeria is ill-advised and may prove counterproductive.

“After extensive deliberations, noting Government’s failure to live up to its responsibilities and speedily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the additional eight-week roll–over strike period declared on 14th March 2022, NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for twelve weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues. The roll-over strike action is with effect from 12.01a.m. on Monday, 9th May, 2022.

“NEC found the planned overseas trip organised by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities’ Spouses (CVCNUS) despicable and condemnable. The advertised five-day conference in Istanbul is a waste of scarce resources of our universities; it is insensitive and provocative, particularly at a time like this when lecturers are denied their salaries for daring to struggle to improve the lot of our public universities.”