Industrial crisis looms in varsities as ASUU threatens strike

Fresh industrial crisis may be in the offing in the Nigerian public universities, as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may embark on an indefinite strike action soon.

The varsities’ union said the move to embark on work-to-rule is influenced by the failure of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, especially, the NEEDS assessment segment of it.

Speaking in Abuja recently on the imminent industrial disagreement with the Federal Government, ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the strike action would go on if the union’s demands were not met.

“Since the agreement was signed in 2009, there has been no significant step taken to implement it. It was the desire to speed up the implementation of the demands that the NEEDS assessment was conceived to identify what each university needs, but the findings of the NEEDS assessment have also not been implemented by the government that set it up. The union will embark on strike if our demand is not met,” he said.

The ASUU helmsman urged well-meaning Nigerians to intervene to avert the looming crisis in the university system.

His words: “The cancellation of Post-UTME, to us, portends serious danger for the quality of education in this country. The argument of the Federal Government on the policy is unacceptable and potentially harmful to the future of Nigeria’s education system. We call on government to rescind its decision and convene a genuine stakeholders meeting on the issue before making statement on the policy.”

He said since the introduction of the Post-UTME, there has been considerable improvement in the quality of students admitted into the universities as evident in the declining dropout rate.

“We note that since the introduction of the post-UTME, the standard of education, especially, that of the tertiary level has improved significantly. There has also been a decline in the dropout rate in the country. The system was able to achieve these laudable objectives because of the contribution of each university into the standards that are required.

Each university has what it is looking for in the students and set their post-UTME question to bring out those qualities. This is what has contributed to the improved standard we have witnessed in the last couple of years. Cancelling the programme will erode the achievements that have been made so far,” he explained.