The Academic Staff Union of Universities has extended its strike action by another twelve weeks. This development was confirmed to Dataphyte by the Union’s President, Professor Victor Osodoke, in a phone conversation.
According to him, the government has failed to meet the demands of the union and at the same time stopped paying salaries of lecturers.
“The government has failed to meet our demands, what we are asking for is not even that germane, so we wonder why our demands are not met. The government even went ahead to stop payment of our salaries thinking that they will force us back to the classroom with starvation but that time has gone past” he stated.
He further noted that lecturers are willing to stay back without resumption for as long as it takes.
Some of the issues in contention are “inability of the government to speedily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the additional eight-week roll–over strike period declared on 14th March 2022”.
Professor Osodoke however told Dataphyte that lecturers are willing to return to classes at any minute if the government meets their demands.
This new development means that the strike action may extend to five months months. ASUU had commenced strike action on February 14, for an initial period of four weeks.
In 2013, the union embarked on a six-month strike action, over non-implementation of a 2009 agreement between lecturers and the government.
In 2020, the lecturers went on a nine-month strike to protest the government not upholding the agreement reached with them, with issues such as adoption of UTAS payment system also forming part of the disagreement.
In the midst of the crisis, the Nigerian government and the striking lecturers have continued to trade accusations on culpability for the strike actions, a development that has not created a solution for the ongoing crisis nor given hope of a speedy resolution.
Students have now gotten involved by organising protests. Protests have been held at University of Lagos, University of Benin, with threats of more protests if classrooms are not opened soon.
Already, students have started protesting in different parts of the country to demand an end to the strike actions.
The Nigerian government is yet to react to the new extension of strike action by the lecturers.