As it becomes clearer by the day that another nationwide strike by university lecturers seems inevitable, students under the umbrella body of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) are making frantic efforts to appeal to both the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to review their stands and avoid the standoff, which will definitely bode ill for the sector.
Chairmen of state chapters of ASUU are currently in Abuja, with the national leadership, collating and reviewing the results of the referendum they conducted in their separate chapters.
The chairmen are expected to decide today (Sunday, August 13) whether or not to proceed on a nationwide strike, and for how long.
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the union met at the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, on the 22nd and 23rd July, 2017, and deliberated extensively on issues arising from the 2009 ASUU/FGN agreement, the 2013 MoU and other related issues and decided to conduct a referendum at the branch congresses on the next line of action.
According to a letter signed by the National President of ASUU, Professor Biodun Ogunyemi, the issues at stake include payment of fractions/non-payment of salaries; non-payment of earned academic allowances, non-release of operational licence of NUPENCO, retired professors and their salaries, university staff schools, and funds for the revitalisation of public universities.
However the National President of NANS, Mr Haruna Kadiri, says these issues are long-standing and that strikes called in the past had never really brought desired results.
In a telephone interview on Saturday, Mr Kadiri said, “We are trying to meet with stakeholders to meet with ASUU to put the issues on the table, to see which ones we can plead with ASUU and the ones we can engage the federal government on.
No comments:
Post a Comment