ASUU Strike: Hope Dims On Varsities Resumption

Resolution of current face-off between Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and Federal Government may take longer time than anticipated as the union yesterday walked out on the National Assembly Joint Committees on Education, Ministers of Education, Labour and Productivity.

The union walked out on the Federal Government delegates, led by Minister of Education, Ruqqayatu Rufa’i, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Nwogu, and National Assembly, during a meeting convened by the lawmakers to help resolve the dispute between ASUU and Federal Government

The problem started when the ASUU members were told to wait a while, to allow the lawmakers and the ministers clear outstanding issues with the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP).

This did not go down well with ASUU and the academics left the National Assembly.

Amidst surprise and confusion, the Chairman, House Committee on Education, Aminu Suleiman, suggested the meeting be suspended and a new date be fixed, and communicated to the union’s representatives.

He said the efforts are not just for the Federal Government, the ministers, the senators or the ASUU members, but for the interest of the students who have been kept out of school since the strike started.

The former chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Education, Farouk Lawan, expressed displeasure over the union members’ action, and made it clear that they do not deserve such treatment as lawmakers.

He, therefore, suggested that the committees’ chairmen should write a warning letter to the union to avoid a repeat of the incident.

The meeting was adjourned indefinitely through a notice by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Education, Uche Chukwumerije.

ASUU had been on strike since last week, over the inability of the Federal Government to meet the agreements it reached with the union since 2009.

In another development, the committees were able to resolve the strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP), as the union, after meeting with the lawmakers and the Federal Government delegates, agreed to end its seven-week old strike.

It would be recalled that polytechnic lecturers in the country under the aegis of ASUP, have been on strike for the past 70 days.

After the meeting with aggrieved lecturers of the polytechnics, the National President of ASUP, Chibuzor Asomugha, said that the polytechnic lecturers would do all within their ambits to call off the strike as soon as possible.

His words: “We will try everything within our ambit to do the needful and do the biddings of the National Assembly on the need for us to call off the strike soonest.”

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi