Education
Nigerians Blast ASUU Over Strike Threat
Nigerians have taken to their X Social handles to lash out on the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its proposed strike action resulting from its disappointment at President Bola Tinubu’s failure to fulfill promises to release their withheld salaries and third-party deductions of Nigerian academics.
Following its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at the Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, the ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, warned that to continue to ignore ASUU’s demand was an invitation to avoidable industrial crisis in the system.
Osodeke pointed out that the union was alarmed, going by the reports it received, at the failed promises of the Tinubu-led government toward addressing the issues that forced the union to embark on the nationwide strike action of February to October 2022.
He said the union’s NEC was alarmed by reports of the increasing number of Nigerian academics who have died or are currently nursing life-threatening ailments as a result of work-related stress and chronic pauperization arising from failed promises by the governments and the general macro- economic climate of the country.
He recounted that the last administration, engineered by Senator Ngige, activated the obnoxious “No Work No Pay‟ policy by withholding lecturers’ seven and half months salaries in federal universities and varying months in state universities.
Despite deploying the instrumentality of hunger and starvation against Nigerian academics, he said the Ngige-headed Ministry of Labour launched a full-scale war against ASUU, including obtaining an injunction at the National Industrial Court.
“However, the strike was basically suspended as a result of patriotic interventions of some well-meaning Nigerians, including the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila.
At several formal and informal meetings, while the court proceedings were ongoing, promises were made to meet the demands of ASUU, including the release of the withheld salaries. Unfortunately, those promises were never kept, even with Rt. Hon Gbajabiamila as the Chief of Staff,” Osodeke said.
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