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The repeatedly extended strike action by members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, ends on Monday, May 9, 2022.
ADULAWONEWS recalls that the academic union had embarked on the industrial action on February 14 2022.
The development had rendered varsity gates closed as all academic activities have been put to stop.
The second round of the eight-week warning strike, Naija News understands ends tomorrow and the varsity lecturers would have to use the window period to decide on the next step.
The union is expected to meet again with representatives of the federal government to come to terms with the lingering exercise which has suffered Nigerian students to be roaming about streets as they could no longer attend their classes.
If the anticipated meeting yielded negatively, the union may have to go on an indefinite industrial action.
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According to Vanguard the national leadership of the union would make public its decision on Monday.
It was gathered that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the union had earlier given the go-ahead to the national leadership to call out members on indefinite strike if nothing tangible was achieved during the eight weeks of their warning strike.
Meanwhile, other associations in the varsities, the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, the National Association of Academic Technologists, NAAT, and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Allied Institutions, NASU have also embarked on strike.
Though the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, had met with the leadership of SSANU, NAAT, and NASU, nothing concrete came out of the meetings.
He is yet to meet with ASUU leadership, though he announced last weekend that he would meet with them.
The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the union had not got an invitation from the government’s team as of the weekend.
“We too heard it in the news what the Minister of Labour said about meeting with us, but as we talk, nobody has reached out to us for any meeting. We don’t know when the meeting will be called. However, I think before going to the press to announce any proposed meeting, what ought to have been done is to inform us. Anyway, we are waiting for the meeting when it is called,” he said.
Asked what would be the next line of action, Osodeke said the leadership of the union would decide that.
Speaking on the situation, the National President of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, NAPLAN, Alhaji Haruna Danjuma, expressed disgust, unfortunately, with the closure of the universities.
“We cannot continue to waste the time of our children. They are staying much at home than in school now. Unfortunately, we are yet to get over the issue of the closure of our higher institutions incessantly. That is a minus for the system. How do we expect foreigners to respect our certificates?
“Incidentally, it is not everybody that can afford to send their children abroad to study. We must make our education sector work and put an end to this rot. We plead with the government and the university workers to find a mid-course and resolve this issue and let academic activities resume in these institutions,” he said.
There have been protests in Ibadan, Benin, Abuja and Lagos calling for an end to the strike and for universities to reopen.