JUST-IN:ASUU Strike:Strike looms as ASUU sets to declare strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). have expressed dissatisfaction with the federal government in meeting its demands.

In an interview with the National President,Emmanuel Osedeke expressed that university lecturers,have given the federal government every opportunity to resolve all its contentious issues as a union, yet government didn’t utilise the advantage to resolve them.

According to him "the government didn’t do anything tangible to change the narrative concerning our old agreement. It is a pity we used the whole year to talk on the same issues that we had been talking about for many years with no positive result. This should tell Nigerians that this government like the one before it doesn’t take our issues with seriousness".

While stating the union agenda with the government in 2025,He noted that "We don’t need to ask government to do a new thing. Let it simply address the same agenda that has been before it since assumption of office 18 months ago. That is to make things work well in the education sector. The sector has suffered enough. Government should do something tangible to address the challenges in the sector..

We can’t continue to be talking on the same issues now and then without any result. 18 months should be reasonable enough for a responsive government to address our concerns. But this is not the case with this government".

For him,the union have not changed its mind, and it was not a threat as the union really wanted to go on strike. "It is only that we want Nigerians to know and understand that ASUU does not just declare nationwide strike but only when it has been pushed to the wall".

"Now, we have given government a notice of strike and extended it many times just to give it more time and opportunity to address the issues so that we all can enjoy uninterrupted academic activities in our universities. But government has not made good use of the opportunity. So, what do Nigerians want ASUU to do then?

when asked on the position of the renegotiation committee constituted by the Federal Government to look into the union concerns,Osedeke noted that "For us as a union, we have concluded our own meeting with the committee. We expect the government representatives to go back to government with the issues we raised and the understanding we reached and then come back to us to sign a fresh agreement. But we have not heard anything from them since more than two weeks that we had done that".

When also asked on whether all issues were captured by the renegotiation committee?,Osedeke was skeptical about it. But according to him "what is certain is that government has to resolve some past issues before signing a new agreement. There are so many of them such as the 35 per cent salary increment for civil servants. Now we are being owed one year arrear on that. That was from January 2023 to December 2023.  We have also been owed three and half months’ salaries withheld during our last general strike in 2022. Government only paid the first four months and promised to pay the balance but has not fulfilled the promise as we speak.

Similarly, we were told that our Earned Academic Allowance, which was around N50 billion, was provided for in the 2024 budget, yet nothing has been released till date.

We were equally told that N300 billion has been approved, as Revitalisation Fund in the last budget, yet, nothing was released so far. Is it not also surprising that we are still being paid on IPPIS platform despite government claiming otherwise?

while stressing the fact that the Federal Government has not done anything on them. That government claimed to have done this or that are all lies".

Osedeke concluded that the only way forward It is to declare a nationwide strike since the union have exhausted all avenues under the law to avert the strike without result.

"Nigerians will hear from us about the way forward this early January. Now, our members have already run out of patience. It is only that the leadership has been pleading with them for more time with the government. I even used myself as collateral, yet, government seems not to bother".

"When our congress met in November, the leadership had to plead to allow government to use the months of November and December to address our concerns and, up till, now no concrete step taken. So, we will reconvene our meeting this January to take a decision".

"The general members have already endorsed industrial action long before as a way out of this situation. We are the ones that are technically deferring the action. So, if government has not done anything by early January, we will go ahead with our plan".