The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has decided to extend its ongoing strike again.
The decision was taken after series of heated discussions of its National Executive Council meeting at the union’s headquarters at the University of Abuja on Monday morning.
ASUU had declared the commencement of a strike on Monday, February 14, 2022, at the University of Lagos.
Meanwhile, in an interview, the spokesperson for the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong, explained that the government had taken all possible steps to end the strike.
He said, “As regards the next steps, government has already inaugurated a committee to harmonise the IPPIS, UTAS, and UP3. This will ensure that government will pay with only one payment platform that will harmonise all the technical peculiarities.
“If you bring some demands and almost 80% have been attended to, there is no need to drag the strike anymore.
“It is unreasonable for the strike to be lingering seeing as government has worked towards fulfilling most of the demands.”
But ASUU had faulted the government for failing to meet some lingering demands which led to the suspension of its strike in 2020.
The union blamed government for the failure to release revitalization funds for universities, the failure to release the white paper report of the visitation panel to universities, and failure to deploy the University Transparency Accountability System to pay salaries and allowances of lecturers.
Other demands include renegotiating the ASUU-FG 2009 agreement and ending the proliferation of universities by state governments and lawmakers.
Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja, a member of NEC who pleaded anonymity said, “The strike has been extended, and the leadership has decentralized the communication channel.
We have received mandates to engage more with the media and the public to educate them on the struggles of ASUU”.
The strike by the union entered its 196th day today (Monday).
Source: The PUNCH
