…Threatens a total indefinite shutdown of public universities
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has given the Federal Government a 14-day ultimatum to satisfy its demands, warning that failure to act will invite a two-week warning strike and possibly a total, indefinite shutdown of public universities.
The ultimatum follows the conclusion of ASUU’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held on Sunday, 28 September, at the University of Abuja.
In a communiqué signed by the union’s president, Prof. Chris Piwuna, ASUU expressed frustration over what it calls the government’s consistent refusal to heed earlier entreaties.
Prof. Piwuna, in the statement, recalled that ASUU had staged rallies across federal and state universities in August to draw attention to systemic decay in the sector, efforts that, he claims, “yielded no results.”
He also lamented the government’s apparent neglect of public universities and the welfare of academic staff.
“It is over 16 years now since ASUU has brought these issues to the media and the public domain,” the communiqué reads. “ASUU is confident that the Nigerian leadership has the capacity to fix Nigerian universities once and for all.”
If the government fails to address the demands within the 14-day window, ASUU says it will begin with a two-week warning strike, before resorting to a full indefinite strike.
In its communiqué, ASUU listed seven major unresolved issues that have persisted for months.
These include the re-negotiation and full implementation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement, sustainable funding for the revitalisation of university infrastructure, and the need to address the alleged victimisation of members in some institutions, including Lagos State University, Kogi State University (now Prince Abubakar Audu University), and the Federal University of Technology, Owerri.
The union also highlighted the payment of outstanding salary arrears ranging from 25 to 35 per cent, the resolution of promotion backlogs that have lingered for over four years, as well as the settlement of outstanding third-party deductions withheld by government agencies.
ASUU insists that these are not new concerns but long-standing matters that successive administrations have failed to address.
It noted that the current agitation was only the latest in a series of actions, pointing out that similar protests in the past had been ignored by the authorities.
The setting of this ultimatum comes amid growing impatience within the union.
The Federal Ministry of Education had earlier constituted a committee under its permanent secretary, Abel Enitan, to examine ASUU’s proposals. However, no substantive outcome has been publicly declared as of the time of publishing this report.
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