ASUU Strike: Deadline Expires in March - Long wait ahead for students
As the deadline issued by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to the Federal Government expires today, there are indications that the universities may be closed for a long time.
The National Executive Council of ASUU had at its meeting of March 24 – 25 demanded a written assurance from the government by March 29 for its negotiating team to renegotiate the 2001 FGN/ASUU agreement and its components, before its members will attend the government’s team proposed meeting of April 2 – 4.
In its communiqué on the resumption of the suspended strike, ASUU demands include: negotiation on basic salary and allowances; funding of universities; institutional autonomy and academic freedom; and reinstatement of the 49 sacked UniIlorin lecturers.
Ministry of Education sources said that government will not give any such written assurance as demanded by ASUU, saying it is cheap blackmail.
“There is no way government can fall for the arm-twisting tactics employed by ASUU. In this way, we cannot move forward. ASUU cannot claim to be more concerned than government about the state of the universities. They should appreciate the efforts the present administration has made in remedying the situation which it did not create in the first place. These problems were accumulation of many years of neglect and so will not be solved at one fell swoop, which is the posture ASUU is taking”, he stated.
Given this hard posture, university authorities believe they are in for a long wait at home.
This was confirmed by Nnanyelugo Okoro, head of department of Mass Communication, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.
“From the way things are, the strike is going to be active and total unless the government does something,” Okoro said.
Indeed, investigation showed that many universities have complied with ASUU directive on the strike while those that are yet to join on account of examinations are rounding off to join the exercise.
Those that complied with the directive include University of Lagos, LASU, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Delta State University, Uniport.
Further reports say that University of Nigeria, Nsukka, have joined but examinations are going on surreptitiously. While at Ebonyi State University, students were chased out of the exam halls.
By CHIDI NDUKA AJA & PHILIP OKAFOR
