There will be no end to the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) current strike, as the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting that ended early on Monday in Abuja did not consider stopping the action.
Meeting participants were only given a briefing on the union’s interactions and submissions to the Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee established in the 2009 Agreement with the union.
NLC and its affiliates organized statewide solidarity protests last week, the leadership told the gathering, according to a source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Vanguard.
“The NEC had no need to discuss halting the strike because the government has shown no meaningful commitment. Is this what the government has to offer? They created the Briggs Committee, which issued recommendations that the government promptly ignored.
There is a lack of trust in the government. Even if the government decides we’re asking for too much, we may still debate whether or not to accept its offerings if it decides we are. We’ve been arguing for a while now that they’re trying to kill off the university system in the same way that they killed out public elementary and secondary schools.
The question is, how many Nigerians are pleased to send their children to the same public primary and secondary institutions that we all attended in those days? It is expected that the union’s national leadership would announce its intentions soon,” the insider predicted.
Not only have teachers been on strike since February 14, but non-teaching employees have also gone on strike since then.
There were rallies across the states and in Abuja on Tuesday and Wednesday to press the government to accept the demands of the union and to open the universities immediately.
