FG, ASUU To Hold 'Emergency Meeting' To Avert Another Strike

Federal Government will on Tuesday meet with the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) for an emergency meeting over the union's threat to embark on fresh strike action. 

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu disclosed this in a statement issued by the ministry spokesperson, Ben Goong on Monday.

According to him, the meeting is billed to be held Tuesday by 11:00 a.m. at the education ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, adding that “the said the meeting is intended to nip the strike in the bud.”

Recall that the academic staff union had issued a strike warning over unmet agreements between it and the federal government. The lecturers accuse the government of failing to honour the agreement reached in January that made the union called off its nine-month strike then.

The statement read, ”Education Minister Adamu Adamu has invited the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to an emergency meeting following the threat to embark on another round of strike.

“The emergency meeting is to hold tomorrow, the 6th of April 2021 at 11:00 am in the Ministry’s Headquarters in Abuja. “Explaining the reason for the emergency meeting, the Minister said the meeting is intended to nip the strike in the bud.

“It will be recalled that ASUU has issued a notice of strike over what the union has described as the refusal of Government to implement some of the agreements entered into between the union and the Federal Government. ASUU has just called off a nine-month-old strike in January this year.”

Nigerian universities have been on strike for a year for every five years since 1999 and during the entire period, Nigerian lecturers went on strike 15 times for about 50 months.

Successive Nigerian governments have struggled to meet the demands of the university lecturers, which their critics say is sometimes unrealistic. Agreements reached during negotiations are mostly not fully fulfilled.

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This has continuously pushed the teachers to down tools before another round of negotiation completes another cycle.