The Federal Government has called for patience and pleaded with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) not to embark on a fresh strike as its ultimatum expired on August 31, 2021.
Emeka Nwajiuba, the Minister of State for Education, said the government was working hard to secure the release of the money from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and appealed to ASUU to be patient.
The union had asked Nigerians to hold the government responsible if the outstanding issues in the Memorandum of Action (MOA) of December 23, 2020, and matters related to the draft renegotiated agreement of May 2021 are not signed by the end of August.
ASUU has, however, stated that its National Executive Council (NEC) would meet to weigh available options and consider its next options.
The union had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in December 2020, after the Federal Government promised to meet its demands which led to the suspension of its nine months strike at the time.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU, who spoke in Abuja, stressed that the union had never indicated any intentions of embarking on industrial action.
According to him, there are processes for embarking on strike which include due consultations with all ASUU chapters should the government fail to implement its promises to the aggrieved lecturers.
He said:
ASUU never proposed a strike. We said if the government does not meet all our demands by the end of August, the union will meet and consider the action to take. But the country should hold the government responsible for any action we take and that was why we said we didn’t mention embarking on strike.
The ASUU president cannot just wake up one morning and pronounce we are going on strike, not even the principal officers, we have to go through our branches. The ultimatum will end today so we will hold a meeting with our members to determine the way forward.