ASUU had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 to press home its demands, with the prominent ones being the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG 2009 agreement and the sustainability of the university autonomy by deploying the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace the government-imposed IPPIS.
The Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB) chaired by human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, SAN, has called on the Nigerian government to put an end to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU had embarked on a four-week warning strike on February 14 to press home its demands, with the prominent ones being the renegotiation of the ASUU/FG 2009 agreement and the sustainability of the university autonomy by deploying the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) to replace the government-imposed IPPIS.
On March 14, the association extended the strike action by another two months to afford the government more time to address all of its demands.
The union in a statement by its President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke on May 9 said it would be extending the ongoing strike by another 12 weeks.
ASCAB in a statement on Thursday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to end the industrial action by directing the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to execute the renegotiated agreement.
The statement read, “It is public knowledge that the Federal Government inaugurated the Renegotiation Committee headed by Professor Munzali Jubrin in December 2020.
“The Committee was saddled with the sole responsibility of addressing the demand of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) pertaining to the task of revamping all federal universities in the country.
“After extensive consultations with all the relevant stakeholders the Committee completed the national submitted a comprehensive report to the Federal Government in May 2021.
“Regrettably, the Agreement was not signed by the Federal Government 9 months after the submission of the said report. Hence, ASUU embarked on the current industrial action.
“However, the industrial action has been allowed to drag on for almost five months due to the dissatisfaction of the Federal Government with certain aspects of the report of the Jibrin Renegotiate Committee. Instead of iron out the grey areas in the Agreement the Federal Government turned round to set up another Renegotiated Committee under the leadership of Professor Nimi Briggs in March 2022.
“The Committee has also submitted its report to the Federal Government. Even though the Federal government and the ASUU have reached an understanding to call off the ongoing strike based on the execution of report of the Briggs Committee the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige has announced the purported rejection of the report.
“But from the information at our disposal the Federal Government has not authorised the Minister to reject the Agreement and subject ASUU to a campaign of calumny.
“The implication of rejecting the report of the Briggs Renegotiated Committee is that the ASUU strike will continue indefinitely. But President Muhammadu Buhari has recently expressed concern over the strike and called on ASUU to call it off saying that "enough is enough". Based on our consultation with the leadership of ASUU we have confirmed that the entire members of ASUU are fully prepared to call off the strike as soon as the FG/ASUU Renegotiated Agreement is executed by the Federal Government.
“In the circumstance, we are compelled to call on President Buhari to end the industrial action by directing the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, to execute the Renegotiated Agreement. The Agreement should be executed as soon as possible in the public interest.”