Another ASUU Strike Looms

Barely two months after the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, ended its nearly six months old industrial action, there are strong indications that students of the nation’s public tertiary institutions may spend another long period at home again.

The Union has accused the Federal Government of insincerity, which has mostly been the reason for the strikes in the first place.

ASUU claimed that the government has again breached a section of an agreement it signed in 2013 to suspend last year’s strike, which crippled university’s education in Nigeria.

Speaking on Friday at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State, the National Treasurer of ASUU, Ademola Aremu, told newsmen that the government has again failed to honour an agreement it signed to pay the sum of N20 billion at the beginning of each quarter to the universities. The said amount is to cater for areas of needs identified in the needs assessment carried on universities.

He noted that this early call is being made so as to avoid the embarrassment their last industrial action caused the whole nation. He urged Nigerians to put pressure on the government to keep its promise, adding that another strike can be avoided.

“We don’t know why the government is always unwilling to implement the documents signed by their representatives,” Aremu questioned, noting that, “we will continue to fight for the system because if the system collapse we will collapse with it.”

Earlier, he lamented that, “this is February and the government is yet to release the money for the quarter.

“All the strike ASUU had embarked upon in this country were basically because the Federal Government failed to honour agreements freely entered to with us. It is also sad that before we begin each of those strike, we would give the government enough warnings and grace to make them retrace their steps. But they always fail.”

The 2013 strike got messier when it was politicised by both the government and the opposition.

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