ASUU president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has said that he Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has extended the ongoing strike by twelve weeks.

A statement signed by ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said this was to give the government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues. It also stated that the roll-over strike was effective from 12.01 am, May 9, 2021.

ASUU said it took this decision after its National Executive Council meeting which started on Sunday night, 8th May 2022, at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja.

This comes after the Union had announced the suspension of its warning strike on its official twitter handle on Sunday, 8th May 2022, stating: “#BREAKING: @ASUU_NGN Ends Warning Strike Tomorrow.

The union had commenced on a one month warning strike on 14th February 2022, to press home their demands on the government. They, however, extended it by another eight weeks which comes to an end on Monday, May 9, 2022.

The statement in part read “The meeting was called to review developments since the Union declared an eight-week total and comprehensive roll-over strike action at the end of its emergency NEC meeting at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja on 14th March, 2022. The strike action came on the heels of the Government’s failure to satisfactorily implement the Memorandum of Action (MoA) it signed with the Union in December 2020 on renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU Agreement, deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), funding for revitalization of public universities (both Federal and States), proliferation and governance issues in State Universities, promotion arrears, withheld salaries (owed for over 20 months in some cases), and Non-emittance of third-party deductions.”

It added that NEC noted with serious disappointment that the three-man Committee set up by the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 1st February 2022 to resolve the lingering issues between ASUU and FGN had not called a single meeting to date.

Story: Asma’u Sani

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