Too Late to Suspend Strike, ASUU Tells Federal Government

The Federal Government’s tardy move to end the planned warning strike has drawn criticism from the Academic Staff Union of Universities, which calls the action “a little too late.”

During an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, ASUU President Professor Chris Piwuna made the remark and accused the government of not responding quickly enough to the union’s requests.

“This government’s and this Ministry of Education’s slow response to our demands is our problem,” Piwuna stated.

He recalled that during a prior meeting in Sokoto, the union had given the government a three-week deadline, but that no follow-up communication from the authorities occurred during that time.

“We were going to start a strike action at the time we went to Sokoto for a meeting,” he clarified. “They gave us three weeks, which we accepted, but we didn’t hear from them until the three weeks had passed. They didn’t even have the decency to say, ‘Oh gentlemen, we think we are running short, three weeks is around the corner, we are unable to meet with you on so-and-so date.'” Nothing, until we made a threat.

Piwuna claims that the administration only contacted him to request that the scheduled action be suspended two working days prior to the strike.

They urged us not to take any action yesterday. Even after eight years, our 2009 agreement is still being renegotiated. We haven’t reached a decision on it, and you come to us to make an appeal two working days prior to a strike. The appeal has come a bit too late, in my opinion,” he remarked.

The president of the ASUU insisted that unless the government offers concrete remedies, the union’s members will carry out their scheduled warning strike once the current deadline ends on Sunday.

“Unless the government takes significant action, there will be a warning strike after their ultimatum expires on Sunday,” Piwuna cautioned. Therefore, we anticipate receiving something significant from the administration within the next 48 hours. After then, we might ask our members, “Do you think this is sufficient for us to hold on?” and follow their instructions.

ASUU had previously instructed its branches nationwide to get ready for a two-week warning strike that was scheduled to start on October 13.

A lengthy number of disagreements regarding university finance, the welfare of lecturers, and the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement remain unsolved, and the most recent standoff between the union and the federal government adds to that list.

To find a long-term solution to the ongoing crisis in the nation’s tertiary education system, the government has begun the last round of negotiations with ASUU and other university unions, according to Minister of Education Dr. Tunji Alausa on Wednesday.