The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has rejected the Federal Government’s last-minute request to halt its planned warning strike, describing the appeal as “too late” and accusing the government of deliberate delay in addressing critical issues affecting the nation’s universities.
ASUU President, Dr. Chris Piwuna, made the announcement on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief. He faulted the Ministry of Education and other government agencies for waiting until two working days before the strike to initiate dialogue.
“The issue we face with this government is their sluggishness in addressing our demands,” Piwuna said. “We gave them three weeks after our last meeting in Sokoto, yet there was no word from them until the deadline had passed. Not even a simple message saying, ‘Gentlemen, we’re running out of time, let’s reschedule.’ Nothing came until we threatened to act.”
Read Also:
- FG starts final phase of negotiations with ASUU
- N138m financial scandal rocks UNICAL ASUU
- ASUU, Oye-Ekiti branch goes on strike over unpaid salaries
He explained that the Federal Government only reached out to ASUU a day before the planned industrial action, requesting more time to negotiate. “Yesterday, they asked us not to take action, but our 2009 agreement has been under renegotiation for over eight years. Two working days before a strike, you come to ask for more time? That request has come far too late,” Piwuna stated.
The union maintains that its grievances stem from the government’s persistent failure to honour existing agreements, poor funding of public universities, and neglect of lecturers’ welfare. If the warning strike goes ahead, it could again paralyze academic activities across Nigeria’s public universities, leaving thousands of students stranded.
ASUU insists that its demands are not new, stressing that the government’s pattern of last-minute intervention only worsens the education sector’s instability.
