The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to embark on another strike action from Wednesday, September 1st, if the Federal Government (FG) fails to implement the agreement signed with the union.
Recall that, after the association met with the FG on August 2, 2021, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, assured ASUU that the N22 billion earned allowance captured in the 2021 supplementary budget would soon be accessed by university workers.
However, the President of the Union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, in an interview with Punch, revealed that the government has refused to fulfill its own part of the agreement, and that the government’s delegate has also refused to answer all telephone calls made to them.
Reacting to this, Osodeke disclosed that the union is giving the government till Tuesday, August 31, to reach out to them or it will activate the procedure of embarking on strike.
“The government has refused to reach out to us. Government officials have stopped. In fact, they don’t take our calls again. Nigerians should tell the government to do what they agreed to do.
“We signed an agreement and even in May, we reached a final agreement; this is August and nothing has been implemented. Does it make any sense? We are giving them till the end of August and after that, we start the procedures.” he said.
Recall that in March 2020, ASUU embarked on a strike over its disagreement with the FG over the funding of the universities and the ineffectiveness and discrepancies around the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System and others.
ASUU, however, developed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace IPPIS and had several meetings with the Ministries of Finance, Education, Labour and Employment, and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation before it was approved but yet to be implemented.
Likewise, the FG and ASUU signed an agreement aimed at resolving some of the demands of ASUU, a development that led to the suspension of the strike on December 24, 2020.
