Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a two-week warning strike to protest federal government’s failure to address lingering issues affecting public universities.
Gatekeepers News reports that ASUU President, Chris Piwuna, announced the decision during a press briefing on Sunday at the union’s national secretariat, University of Abuja.
He said the strike, which will begin on October 13, would be observed across all ASUU branches nationwide.
Piwuna explained that the union resorted to the action after several failed attempts to get the government to meet its demands.
On October 8, the Minister of Education, Tunji Alausa, had appealed to the union to shelve its planned strike, assuring that negotiations with aggrieved tertiary education unions were in their final stage.
However, Piwuna said the plea came too late, insisting that the action would proceed as planned unless the government takes immediate steps to resolve the issues.
He said, “The problem with this government is that they are slow in responding to our demands. When we were about to embark on strike action, we went for a meeting in Sokoto and they gave us three weeks, which we accepted.”
“During those three weeks, we never heard a word from them until the three weeks had elapsed.”
The union also met with student leaders in Jos to explain their position, arguing that previous delays in resolving their demands have made industrial action unavoidable.
The federal government has stated it is in the final phase of negotiations with ASUU, with the Technical Working Group preparing counteroffers under President Tinubu’s directive to keep universities open.
ASUU warns that unless “concrete steps” are taken within the two weeks, the strike may be extended indefinitely.
