The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has further extended its ongoing strike by 3 months.
But the development has been greeeted with condemnation by students who have been at home for a couple of months without lectures just as their academic calendars have been disrupted.
It was further gathered that the decision was taken during an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) held at ASUU Secretariat in Abuja.
A statement signed by ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed that the extension was to give the Federal Government enough time to satisfactorily resolve all the outstanding issues.
The emergency meeting, which had in attendance principal officers and branch chairmen, started on Sunday and ended on early Monday morning.The two-month rollover strike declared on March 14 by ASUU ended May 9 (today), thus NEC felt the need to extend it by 12 weeks after initial agitation for indefinite strike because of failure to address the contentious issues.
But the implication of the extension of the strike is that public universities would remain closed for another three months.
At the last meeting with Federal Government negotiation team led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, ASUU officials walked out of the meeting, but there is indication that both parties would meet next week.
ASUU’s demands include the non-implementation of the Memorandum of Action (MoA) signed with Federal Government in December 2020, on funding for revitalisation of public universities (both federal and states), renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ ASUU Agreement and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
Other outstanding issues are earned academic allowances; state universities, promotion arrears, withheld salaries, non-remittance of third-party deductions and rejection of UTAS that ASUU technical team developed to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
