The Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) strike will go on as planned because the union’s National Executive Council, or NEC, did not discuss the possibility of postponing the strike at its meeting, which ended early on Monday in Abuja.
Vanguard’s investigations revealed that the union’s national leadership limited its briefing to discussing their interactions with and submissions to the Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee, which was established by the federal government to renegotiate the 2009 Agreement with the union.
According to a source, the NLC’s intervention in the situation and the subsequent statewide solidarity marches staged by the Congress and its affiliates last week were also discussed by the leadership at the meeting.
The NEC did not need to discuss postponing the strike because there is no indication that the administration is seriously committed. Can anyone confirm that this is the government’s offer? The Briggs Committee was established by them, and after it issued recommendations, the administration ignored the document.
“The government’s sincerity is lacking. Let’s imagine that the government makes an offer and we decide whether or not to take it because we are asking for too much, which isn’t really the case. They intend to destroy the university system, just like they did with public elementary and secondary institutions, we have been saying.
How many Nigerians today are proud to enrol their kids in the same public elementary and secondary institutions that we all attended back then? The union’s national leadership will shortly announce our choices, the source stated.
Remember that the union has been on strike since February 14 of this year, following which other unions representing non-teaching personnel started their own strikes.
Solidarity demonstrations were conducted last Tuesday and Wednesday in Abuja and other states to urge the government to give in to the union’s demands and to reopen the universities right once.
