The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may commence an indefinite industrial action on Monday as the eight-week warning strike ends on that day.
Before embarking on the second round of the eight-week warning strike, which ends on Monday, after its first one-month warning strike between February 14 Monday, May 9, 2022, the ASUU leadership during its National Executive Committee (NEC) had asked members to start an indefinite strike immediately if the Federal Government (FG) fails to yield to their demands.
The striking lecturers are demanding funding for the revitalisation of public universities, earned academic allowances, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and payment of promotion arrears, commitment to the payment of earned academic allowance; stop use of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and be replaced by Universities Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) among others.
It would be recalled that during the ASUU second warning strike, other staff unions, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT), and the Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) of Education and Allied Institutions, in the university system also embarked on strike.
Though the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had met with the leadership of SSANU, NAAT, and NASU, nothing concrete came out of the meetings.
Though the FG is expected to resume a fresh talk with the striking lecturers on Monday on how to end the strike that is entering its third month, the National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the union was yet to receive an invitation from the government’s team.
Osodeke, who spoke with journalists on Sunday, said: “We heard it in the news that the Minister of Labour, Dr. Chris Ngige, spoke about meeting with us, but as we talk, nobody has reached out to us for any meeting. We don’t know when the meeting will be called. However, I think before going to the press to announce any proposed meeting, what ought to have been done is to inform us. Anyway, we are waiting for the meeting when it is called.”
Meanwhile, students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) are already planning a mass protest across the country, starting from Monday.
The leadership of NANS has started mass mobilisation of its members in many states, including Lagos, Kwara, Imo among others in a protest against the continued the indefinite strike of ASUU and other staff unions.
According to handbills by the union to sensitize members and mobilize them for the protest, students in Lagos will gather at University Road Junction Yaba on Monday from 8:00am while in Kwara, students will gather at the University of Ilorin gate on Tuesday.
Students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN), Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma (AAU), and Federal Polytechnic, Auchi are among those that recently protested the prolonged strike.
