The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has again threatened it may go on an indefinite strike.
Bibian Anekwe News understands that the National Executive Council of the academic body are meeting today in Abuja and feelers to newsmen suggest the union may extend its current industrial exercise.
Sharing a brief of today’s meeting agenda with newsmen on Sunday afternoon, one of the NEC members told newsmen that “Yes, we are meeting today on the ongoing strike and other matters.”
Asked if there could be a good news for the Nigerian students after the meeting, the source who spoke with the PUNCH replied, “Not likely. There is no positive development that I know of.”
Meanwhile, ASUU president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke had also confirmed the meeting will hold today but gave no further explanations.
Bibian Anekwe News reports that ASUU’s emergency meeting is coming a day to the expiration of the one warning strike by the union.
Recall that the academic body had on Monday, February 14, 2022, declared a total and comprehensive four-week warning strike.
The strike, according to the union, was due to the failure of the government to implement the agreement the Federal Government signed with the union in 2009.
ASUU had also accused the Federal Government of working against the deployment of the UTAS, a payment platform designed by ASUU in lieu of the IPPIS payment system.
While the two body maintain a status quo, parents and varsity students are lamenting bitterly over the educational system in the country, faulting both the government and the union of lecturers.
In an interview with Channels Television earlier on Saturday, Osodeke said, “Nothing tangible has been done so far. We have met with the Minister of Labour twice.
“We gave a room for them (NIREC) to intervene and they did. What we see is a lack of will and lack of interest in the public university system.
“The strike didn’t need to last more than one week if the government had taken it seriously. When they had a problem in Ukraine where the sons of the rich were studying, we saw how fast they released money, but in the country where the children of the poor are studying, nothing has been done.”
Bibian Anekwe News
