ASUU Members (The Academic Staff Union of Universities) has been urged by the Noble Youths Mass Support Association (NYMSA), a youth organization in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), to abide by the resumption order issued by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) in Abuja on Wednesday.
The call was made by Mr. Godwin Onmonya, the group’s national coordinator, while he was on the phone with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gwagwalada, FCT.
He claimed that the strike was hurting students
Since February 14, the union has been on a nationwide warning strike to emphasize its demands. The union’s president, Mr. Emmanuel Osodeke, has stressed that the action will continue until their demands are met.
The funding for the Revitalization of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and promotion arrears were some of the demands made by the professors.
Others include the 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement’s renegotiation and claims of inconsistencies with the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System. The ASUU Members have not yet agreed to open the Universities as their demands are yet to be met.
As the strike approached its seventh month, the federal government was forced to file a lawsuit in court to put an end to it and allow classes to resume.
But students protested by blocking the entrance to the Lagos International Airport and threatening to block other key roadways if their demands weren’t granted by the government through the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
At the request of the Minister of Labour and Employment and in accordance with his authority under the Federal Labor Laws, the court approved the resumption order, pending the resolution of the substantive litigation.
In a similar vein, Mr. Luka Ayuba, a father in Gwagwalada Area Council, claimed that the strike had caused his son, who was pursuing veterinary medicine at the University of Abuja, to turn his attention elsewhere.
“After each episode of strike, the children are no more focused and they end up not graduating within the stipulated years.
“My only pain is that the people in government are not feeling it because their own children are not in public schools but abroad or in private schools,” he said.
The University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) will not be implemented until the renegotiated 2009 agreement is signed, implemented, and the UTAS is deployed, according to Dr. Salawu Lawal, the ASUU Zonal Coordinator for Abuja.
