The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that it is fully prepared to embark on what it described as the “mother of all strikes” if the Federal Government continues to neglect the union’s long-standing demands.
Speaking at a press briefing after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held at the University of Abuja on Monday, ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said members had run out of patience following the government’s “nonchalant attitude” towards agreements reached in the past.
According to him, issues bordering on university funding, payment of earned academic allowances, adoption of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), and the implementation of the renegotiated 2009 agreement have all been ignored by the authorities.
>We have bent backwards over the years to give government ample time to do the needful. But what we see is insincerity, deceit, and a lack of political will. If nothing is done urgently, Nigerian universities will witness the mother of all strikes,” Osodeke declared.
The ASUU leader noted that the union had exhausted all channels of dialogue and consultation but was being pushed to the wall by the Federal Government’s failure to honor its commitments.
He further accused the government of paying lip service to the revitalization of public universities, leaving students and lecturers to suffer the consequences of underfunding and infrastructural decay.
>We cannot continue to preside over glorified secondary schools. The Nigerian university system must be saved, and if strike is the only language government understands, then so be it,” he added.
The warning comes at a time when many students and parents are still recovering from the academic setbacks caused by ASUU’s prolonged strikes in previous years. Education stakeholders fear that another industrial action could further destabilize the already fragile academic calendar.
Meanwhile, the Federal Ministry of Education is yet to respond officially to ASUU’s threat, but officials have in the past urged the union to embrace dialogue rather than industrial action.
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