30th August, 2021
THE Academic Staff Union of Universities has given the Federal Government of Nigeria till 31st of August (Tuesday) to reach out or it will activate the procedure of embarking on strike.
The union’s President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed this in an interview on Sunday.
He revealed that the government officials have stopped talking with ASUU.
He added that ASUU is ready to embark on another round of industrial action if the Federal Government fails to implement the agreement signed with the union.
He said, “The government has refused to reach out to us. Government officials have stopped. In fact, they don’t take our calls again. Nigerians should tell the government to do what they agreed to do.
“We signed an agreement and even in May, we reached a final agreement; this is August and nothing has been implemented. Does it make any sense? We are giving them till the end of August and after that, we start the procedures.”
ASUU had embarked on a strike in March 2020.
ASUU said the strike came as a result of its disagreement with the FG over the funding of the universities and the ineffectiveness and discrepancies around the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and others.
ASUU, however, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution to replace IPPIS and had several meetings with the government officials before it was approved but yet to be implemented.
Likewise, the FG and ASUU signed an agreement aimed at resolving some of the demands of ASUU, a development that led to the suspension of the strike on December 24, 2020.
However, ASUU is now saying nothing has been implemented.