ASUU issues FG 21-day ultimatum, may go on strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has notified the federal government of plans to embark on a strike action.

The notice was issued at the end of the association’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held at the University of Ibadan.

“It is not an ultimatum but a strike notice. We are giving them 21 days’ notice, after which we shall embark on strike,” a source within the national executive council of ASUU said on Monday.

Some of the demands include the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.

Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, on June 26, invited the union to a meeting to deliberate on the lingering issues affecting universities and to avert the planned strike.

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National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who spoke on the outcome of the meeting, said the agreements reached with the Federal Government had not been implemented.

“At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we would meet to see the progress the government has made.

“We will also see what we will do next if the government fails to implement the agreements reached,” he said.

Osodeke said nothing had been done about the academic allowances due to ASUU members, which have accumulated for over six years.

The ASUU president said some of the demands included the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.

He said the agreements had lingered for over six years, and the government had yet to implement them.

Osodeke said the academic allowances due to their members had also accumulated for over six years, and nothing had been done about it.

“Since 2013, only one has been paid. We need revitalisation funds to upgrade our universities to standard so that we can have students and lecturers from outside the country,” he said.

Osodeke added that the government had yet to stop the proliferation of universities, noting that many new universities were being approved without funds to run them.