THE Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has reached a temporary compromise with the Nigerian government, suspending its ongoing two-week warning strike.
National President of ASUU, Prof. Chris Piwuna, made this known at a press briefing in Abuja on Wednesday, revealing that the rationale behind the strike suspension was a decision reached at the meeting of the National Executive Council meeting, which was held overnight and ended by 4:00 am on Wednesday.
Piwuna stressed that the union embarked on the strike due to the failure of the government to meet its demands on time, noting that ASUU “had useful engagements with representatives of the government to consider the response to the draft renegotiation of the 2009 agreements.”
He said the union was not where it had been prior to the commencement of the strike.
“The union acknowledged that the government returned to the negotiation table. While noting that a lot more work is still required, NEC came to the conclusion that the ongoing strike should be reviewed. The decision to review the strike action was a result of efforts by our students, parents, and the Nigeria Labour Congress.
“Consequently, NEC resolved to suspend the warning strike to reciprocate the efforts of well-meaning Nigerians.”
ASUU is demanding, among other things, the payment of outstanding 25 percent-35 percent salary arrears, payment of promotion arrears for over four years and release of withheld third-party deductions (cooperative contributions, union check-off dues) and the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.
Earlier reactions
Parents and students of Nigerian universities had protested the two-week warning strike declared by the ASUU two Sundays ago, saying they would be biggest losers.
READ ALSO: Parents, students protest as ASUU begins two-week strike
A father with two children in University of Lagos, Mr Anthony Odionu, had told Economy Post: “Why does ASUU always go on strike every now and again? Of all the strikes they have enbarked upon since 1999, what have have they achieved? Up till now, they are still discussing the 2009 Agreement when some of the demands in the agreement may have been overtaken by time. At the end of the day, it is the students who will suffer loss.”
A banker, whose daughter is a student of FUTO, Ms Patience Udom, had noted: “ASUU has embarked upon strikes 16 times since 1999, yet nothing much has improved in our universities. Can they look for another way of making their demands known, rather than through strikes? At the end of the day, we do not have more lecturers’ exchange programmes with foreign universities; we do not have better laboratories than our neighbouring countries, and our research has not featured in global magazines.”
She, however, blamed the Nigerian government for letting the nation’s academics down, noting that “when they go abroad, we begin to blame them. Yet, the government cannot meet some of their basic demands.”
A student of Ahmadu Bello University, Ms Khalifa Ahmed, had also told Economy Post that she would use the opportunity to learn artificial intelligence.
“It is a pity that we are going to be home for two weeks. This explains why rich parents send their children to Ghana and other countries for studies. A programme that is supposed to last for four years will end up taking six years of your life. For me, I will deepen my knowledge of AI during the strike,” she said.
ASUU has embarked upon strikes 16 times since 1999. ASUU last went on strike in 2022, beginning on February 14 and ending it on October 14, reflecting an 8-month period. The union had earlier gone on strike in 2020 between March 23 and December 23, 2020, marking the longest strike in recent times.
A student of University of Benin had described the strike as a waste of time.
