Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate in the forthcoming 2023 general elections has called the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike “unconscionable, alarming, and unacceptable.”
He said that the strike has lasted for an excessive amount of time and demanded that the Nigerian government quickly begin “collaborative dialogue” with the irate professors at the affected universities.
On Wednesday, Mr. Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, tweeted about the lingering strike via his verified Twitter account.
He bemoaned the effects of the extended strike, which is in its seventh month and has been declared indefinite by the lecturers’ union.
He tweeted, “Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable that FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students.”
“It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith.”
In a second tweet on Wednesday, Mr. Obi praised the state governors’ quick action in the situation to ensure the lecturers’ return to the classrooms.
He tweeted, “It’s gratifying that our governors have undertaken to mediate on the lingering ASUU strike. This is propitious and a remarkable show of leadership. Hopefully, such direct constructive engagement will bring this strike to an end soonest.”
ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke revealed on Monday that the union’s National Executive Council in Abuja had decided to turn the extend the strike into a comprehensive, entire, and indefinite one starting on that day.
In the last five and a half years, the Federal Government of Nigeria has engaged ASUU in unproductive and never-ending negotiations without a showing of the utmost fidelity, according to Mr. Osodeke, who said that the union has been subjected to “a lot of high level dishonesty.”
Clariform recalls that On February 14, 2022, ASUU went on strike over several issues, including the failure to pay earned academic allowances and revitalization fund, as well as the failure to adopt the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in place of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
To settle the problem, the Nigerian government has scheduled a new meeting with vice-chancellors and pro-chancellors for September 6 at the National Universities Commission (NUC) headquarters in Abuja.
