ASUU tells Nigerians to blame the Federal Government for its next action

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) members have urged Nigerians to hold the federal government accountable for their next actions in response to the government’s refusal to honour an agreement it made with them.

ASUU has announced that an emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting with its leaders and top officials will be held this week to decide on the future course of action for its members. Should the government fail to follow through on its promises to his dissatisfied lecturers, the union said it will confer with all of its chapters.

ASUU’s latest threat came after the Federal Government’s August 31 deadline to meet its demands had passed.

The Federal Government has remained silent on the latest agitations by university lecturers. Labour and Employment Minister Dr. Chris Ngige could not be reached for comment after several calls to his cellphone were not returned last night.

According to ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, the NEC will meet to consider the choices and adopt a position.

After ASUU and the government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the lecturers ended their eight-month strike in December of last year.

Following many allegations of non-compliance, a federal government delegation led by Ngige met with professors on August 2 to assess the status of the MoU’s implementation.

“The Federal Government, through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), will release N30 billion to universities as a revitalisation fund next week”: Ngige had promised them on August 2.

However, after the August 2 meeting, Osodeke accused the government of neglecting to release the funds and implement other promises.

Government officials, he claims, have stopped picking calls from ASUU leaders.

Prof Osodeke said: “ASUU never proposed a strike, we said if government does not meet all our demands by the end of August, the union will meet and consider the action to take.

“But the country should hold the government responsible for any action we take and that was what we said we didn’t mention embarking on strike.

“The ASUU president cannot just wake up one morning and pronounce we are going on strike not even the principal officers, we have to go through our branches.“

The ultimatum will expire today(August 31), so we’ll convene a meeting with our members to decide how to proceed.”