Anxiety as ASUU decides on strike today

Emmanuel Victor Osodeke, the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), on Monday, organised a press conference on whether to declare a fresh strike action or not.

Members of the union’s national executive council (NEC), encompassing ASUU leaders across campuses, have been holding meetings since Saturday.

ASUU NEC has been in a closed-door meeting at the University Of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka ahead of the final lap of the meeting to follow by 12 midnight on Monday.

Osodeke said he will be addressing the press conference to announce the resolutions of the two-day meeting titled ‘NEC for NEC.’

ASUU had decided to embark on the two-day meeting after it sensitised and mobilised lecturers and students across all varsities on the reason the union might go on a strike.

There is also tension among university students about what might be the outcome of the ASUU NEC meeting.

The union, which embarked on a nine-month strike that halted university education in 2020, had lamented the failure of the federal government to fulfill some of the agreements they had reached to suspend the industrial action.

It added that the mobilisation for strike followed the federal government’s attitude towards the renegotiation of their salaries and allowances as well as the adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) payroll software.

But President Muhammadu Buhari had recently assured that his administration would honour its agreements with the union to prevent incessant strikes in the education sector.

“My administration is committed to this engagement and dialogue, and I urge them to stay the course towards a joint resolution in the best interest of our children and nation,” he had said.