There are strong indications that the national body of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), may declare total, comprehensive and indefinite strike action next week over the hard position of the Federal Government to yield to the Union’s demands of which revitalisation of the university education is at the centre.
The ASUU members all over Nigeria have intensified a call that the national body declares indefinite strike action that will completely ground the university educational system following the declaration of the federal government through the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu that the government would not pay the salaries for the months the union have embarked on strike action.
Adamu revealed this on Thursday, August 18, 2022, at the weekly ministerial press briefing at the State House, Abuja.
Following this, the national body of ASUU instructed all its branches to hold congresses and direct the national body on the next line of action.
However, PrimeStar News gathered that all the branches that have held their congresses have demanded that the national body declare an indefinite strike action, saying that they are ready for a complete showdown with the federal government.
Among the universities that have taken this stance is the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) branch, which resolved, “That the union should embark on a total, comprehensive and indefinite (TCI) strike action effective from next NEC meeting until all demands are adequately met.”
Other resolutions include, “That members should endeavour to participate more actively in the struggle by engaging in write-ups and other positive efforts in support of the struggle.
“That the union should look ahead to have a plan B should the alleged threat of prescribing our union by the government becomes a reality.
“That the UNILORIN branch of ASUU strongly supported the decision taken by the negotiating team and national strike Coordinating Committee of the union as regards the total rejection of the embarrassing 2award of offered by the federal government of Nigeria.
“That the union should ensure that other demands of the struggle were not jettisoned or over-ridded by consequential issues of our withheld salaries because of the tendency of such an action to cause a diversion from the major demands of the struggle.”
The union, however, “appreciated the role played so far by the national leadership of the union and encouraged them to continue with the struggle in line with the principles and mandates of NEC of our union.”
Following the same line are Modibbo Adama University, Yola, University of Benin (UNIBEN), Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), also known as UDUSOK, University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU),
However, the ongoing ASUU strike has continued to toll on the striking lecturers as some of them have started dying of hunger.
The Prime Star News cannot confirm the death causalities resulting from the inability of the lecturers to settle their bills but it has reliably gathered that 10 lecturers have died at Ambrose Alli University and one just died at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Revealing the development in Ambrose Alli University, its Chairman, Cyril Onogbosele said the union has lost 10 of its members since the association embarked on strike over unpaid salary arrears.
His words, “Since this strike started, we have lost something in the neighbourhood of 10 lecturers. Some of them cannot afford medicare. Workers have been denied their salaries for 19 months now. Many of us are dying as a result of that. We cannot meet our financial obligations to our families because of unpaid salaries. We want the revitalisation of public universities. We want better conditions of service, infrastructural development, university autonomy, and address poor funding and unpaid allowance. That is what the strike is all about.”
Also, it has been discovered that many lecturers are already abandoning their jobs for greener pasture abroad as it is gathered that many have taken up lecturing appointments in Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and other developed nations.
In an exclusive interview with Punch, ASUU National President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke raised the alarm over the exodus of lecturers from the nation’s universities for greener pastures abroad.
Osodeke attributed the development to the Federal Government’s poor treatment of its members which it said had forced many to venture into other sources of livelihood.
He lamented that many lecturers had taken to farming and other economic activities, while a large number had left the country.
However, the Middle Belt Movement for Justice and Peace, (MBMJP), has accused the Federal Government of willfully supervising the death of public universities in Nigeria by failing to resolve its lingering dispute with ASUU.
The Group in a statement signed by the Convener, Comrade Joe Bukka, lamented that the crop of leaders in Nigeria was failing to get their priorities right “and by so doing dragging the country farther into the abyss.
The statement stated, “How can anybody imagine that a government that allowed the public universities to be shut for over one year due to its differences with ASUU, is now presiding over another round of ASUU strikes and they seem not to be bothered about it. They know full well that their action is gradually killing the public university system after they had successfully killed the public primary and post-primary schools in the country. These same people who are presiding over the death of the Nigerian university system are going about canvassing the support of Nigerians to have them continue to perpetuate their misrule in 2023, but Nigerians now know better. What we see happening today under this All Progressives Congress, APC led Federal Government is the height of insensitivity to the plight of the people. Aside from plunging this country into the worse economic crisis in history, this administration has taken it upon itself to kill our public universities where the children of the ordinary man acquire tertiary education.”
“It is the greatest disservice to the teeming youths of this country to allow the ASUU strike to continue thereby frustrating the educational pursuit of children of the masses. They must realize that posterity will never forgive those who have brought us so much pain in this country due to their bad policies and are currently presiding over the death of our public universities. They must realize that the day of reckoning will certainly come. Well, if our votes will count in 2023, Nigerians now know that what happened in 2015 was a misadventure that cannot be repeated in our country again. We must take back our country from self-seeking leaders who care less about the suffering masses of this country”, it added.
