FG says tertiary unions except university to resume next week; ASSU berates FG of fueling lingering strike by provocative indifference; NANS begins consultations to sue Adamu
The Federal Government has revealed that other academic unions that negotiated with it including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SANNU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions, (NASU), and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) will resume work in the next one week.
Adamu Adamu the Minister of Education while speaking at the State House Ministerial Briefing Thursday organised by the Presidential Communications Team in Abuja, stated that ASUU won’t resume because it is yet to accept FG’s offers and is yet to call off its strike.
The Minister said that ASUU insisting on being paid six months’ salaries during the strike period is what is stalling the negotiations between the Federal Government and the union, urging that the government is committed to its ‘no work no pay’ rule to serve as deterrence to other unions.
Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been speaking about its recent engagements with the government’s negotiating team.
The university teachers accused the Federal Government of encouraging the lingering strike over what it describes as a provocative indifference.
In a statement on Thursday, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, blamed the Nigerian government for imposing industrial action on the aggrieved lecturers.
Professor Osodeke recalled how the Munzali Jibril-led renegotiation committee submitted the first Draft Agreement in May 2021 but the “government’s official response did not come until about one year later”.
He said the secret move by the current administration to set aside the principle of collective bargaining had the potential of damaging lecturers’ psyche and destroying commitment to the university system.
The National Association of Nigerian Students has hinted that it would commence consultations to sue the Federal Government and the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, over the lingering strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The minister had during a press briefing encouraged students affected by the strike to sue ASUU.
But NANS President, Sunday Ashefon, said it was an abuse of intellect to suggest that students should sue the federal government’s employees for protesting bad working conditions.
Ashefon however said Nigerian students would rather explore legal windows to demand that the government compensates students for numerous liabilities suffered as a result of the incessant and prolonged ASUU strike.
