ASUU downplays possibility of fresh strike as three-week notice expires

Emmanuel Osodoke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the leadership of the body will consult with its members before deciding on actions to take against the federal government. 

In November, ASUU gave a 3-week ultimatum to the government to implement the 6 items in their memorandum of action (MoA).

The union had said it would embark on an industrial action if the government failed to implement its promises.

Speaking on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme, on Tuesday, Osodoke said the union has not decided to embark on a strike.

He said the government has only been able to partly implement one of the six demands of the union.

“What we said is that we are giving the government three weeks to resolve the problems. If they fail to do so in three weeks, we will take action. That’s what we said, we didn’t mention anything about strike or not but it’s part of the option which my union will decide,” he said.

“We gave the government three weeks to implement issues in our MoA and MoU. And after that three weeks, the union will meet to take further action. We didn’t mention the strike.

“The principal and national officers of the union don’t have the power to call for a strike. It is the members, starting from branches.

“The three weeks ended on Sunday and we met on Sunday and we are going to our branches as usual for them to give us the mandate on what to do and what type of action we should take now that the three weeks have expired.

“Only one out of the 6 items has been partly implemented and that’s the revitalisation fund, where they told us they have released N20 billion to some of the universities that were successful in the process of evaluating what to do with the money. That’s all they have done, all others have not been implemented.

“The union has been patient with them since August, but now that they have failed to implement what they promised.”