Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has again extended the ongoing strike by four weeks.
President of the union, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke who disclosed this via a statement on Monday, says the decision is to give the government enough time to resolve outstanding issues with the lecturers.
It explains that the body conveyed an emergency National Executive Committee NEC meeting at the University of Abuja on Sunday, which lead to the extension with immediate effect on August 1.
“Following extensive deliberations and taking cognizance of Government’s past failures to abide by its own timelines in addressing issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MOA), NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for four weeks to give Government more time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues’’
“NEC viewed with seriousness the recent directive given by the President and Visitor to all Federal Universities that the Minister of Education, in consultation with other government officials, should resolve the lingering crisis and report to him within two weeks’’ the statement adds
The Union, therefore, wonders why it has taken five full months and needless muscle-flexing for government to come to the realization of the need for honest engagement
The statement appreciates the nationwide protest of 26th and 27th July 2022 organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in collaboration with Civil Society Organisations (CSO) to help ASUU press home their demand.
It adds that ASUU renews its commitment to the struggles of NLC in championing the cause of the working and suffering Nigerians.