Due to the Federal Government’s failure to fulfill the 2009 agreement made with the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria (ASUU), the association has commenced an indefinite nationwide strike.
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, President of the union disclosed this at a news conference on Monday in Abuja.
Ogunyemi said the decision to embark on the industrial action was resolved at its emergency National Executive Council meeting held on Aug. 12.
According to him, during the strike, “there shall be no teaching, no examination and no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in any of our branches till government meets the union’s demands“.
“The foundation of development of any nation lies on its attention to education. No nation can grow beyond the level of its educational development.
”Any genuine move to transform Nigeria into an economically viable and politically stable country must begin with a firm commitment to an all round transformation of the country’s education.
”ASUU has been vociferous on the primacy of the university education system because it is the repository of ideas for invention, innovation and national transformation.
“It is, however, disappointing that despite the prime importance of university education, the political class in Nigeria has continued to pay mere lip-service to addressing to lose the little gains achieved from the struggles of ASUU,’’ he said.
The ASUU president stated that the Wale Babalakin-led committee set up by the Federal Government lacked the powers to resolve the issue as there were unimplemented items in the 2009 agreement.
He said that government had ignored the system, stressing that the political class had also shifted attention to sending their wards to private universities and universities abroad leaving public universities in Nigeria to collapse.
