The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing strike by two months.
The aggrieved teachers had on February 14 declared a one-month warning strike in protest against the government’s failure to meet their demands.
Rising from an emergency meeting of its National Executive Council (NEC) at the University of Abuja, yesterday, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said: “Having taken reports on the engagements of trustees and principal officers with the government, the union concluded that government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the four-week roll-over strike period and resolved that the strike be rolled over for another eight weeks to give government more time to address all the issues in concrete terms so that our students will resume as soon as possible.”
President, National Parents-Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, said ASUU and the Federal Government could sort out their differences without making students victims.
He lamented that the strikes were becoming too worrisome, noting that the development does not portray the country in good light before the international community.
He said: “The strikes are making youths lose faith in education and consequently take to negative vices that may compromise their future. This development is dangerous to us as a nation. It does not speak well of us as a nation that truly desires accelerated development and transformation.
“Government should tackle this issue. It must go to work, and quickly too, to revisit whatever demands the lecturers are making.”
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has also called for an emergency meeting of students and leaders to seek a way forward.
In a letter sent to its national executive council members, zonal coordinators Joint Campus Council (JCC) and stakeholders, NANS national president, Sunday Asefon, said: “Following the unfavourable outcome of ASUU’s NEC meeting held on Sunday, at the University of Abuja, where the union, among other resolutions, decided to extend ongoing warning strike for another eight weeks, I am compelled to summon this emergency expanded national executive council meeting to enable us, as major and principal victims of the perpetual face-off between ASUU and the Federal Government meet to take a decisive decision on the way forward to address the disruption in the academic calendar and our lives as well.”
