IT’S OFFICIAL: ASUU extends strike by eight weeks

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has officially extended its ongoing warning strike by eight weeks.

The decision was reached after a meeting of the union’s national executive council (NEC) on Monday morning at its University of Abuja secretariat.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, said the extension takes effect at 12:01 am on Monday, March 14, 2022.

“NEC was disappointed that Government did not treat the matters involved with utmost urgency they deserved during the four-week period as expected of a reasonable, responsive, and well-meaning administration,” the statement read.

“NEC viewed government’s response, so far, as a continuation of the unconscionable, mindless, and nonchalant attitude of the Nigerian ruling elite towards the proven path of national development which is education.

“NEC acknowledged the intervention efforts, in various ways, by patriots and friends of genuine national development to expeditiously resolve the crisis which-Government’s disposition had allowed to fester.

“NEC concluded that Government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MoA) within the four-week roll-over strike period.

“NEC resolved that the strike be rolled over for another eight (8) weeks to give government more time to address all the issues in concrete terms so that our students will resume as soon as possible.”

ASUU embarked on a one-month warning strike on February 14 after a similar deliberation of the union’s NEC.

It accused the federal government of reneging on the agreements it reached to suspend its last industrial action in 2020.

ASUU also argued that the strike had followed the government’s attitude towards the renegotiation of salaries and allowances as well as the adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) payroll software.

The union rejected the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), claiming it is “inconsistent”.

The government referred UTAS to the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to conduct a user acceptance test (UAT) and vulnerability assessment and penetration test (VAPT) prior to the final deployment in an ongoing process that commenced on March 3.

On March 10, Kashifu Inuwa, director-general of NITDA, declared that UTAS failed the three integrity tests.

ASUU, however, tackled the NITDA for claiming its proposed payroll software failed integrity tests.

Osodeke also accused the agency of misleading the public.