CityNews has compiled the latest ASUU news on the current strike embarked by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a Nigerian union of university academic staff.
Below is the latest Asuu strike update, asuu latest news on resumption and ASUU strike news today, Monday, 18th July 2022, compiled by Newsone Nigeria.
ASUU meets August 1, strike enters 155th day
The National Executive Council of the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities is scheduled to hold its meeting in the first week of August, 2022, The PUNCH has reliably gathered.
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Our correspondent learnt that a decision on whether to suspend or continue with the strike which enters its 155th day on Tuesday (today), will be taken at the meeting.
Newsone reports that ASUU on Monday, February 14, 2022 embarked on the industrial action over what the union described as the failure of the government to address some of its demands.
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The chairman of ASUU, Federal University of Technology, Minna chapter, Dr. Gbolahan Bolarin, confirmed the planned meeting to our correspondent on Monday.
Bolarin said the meeting would be held either on July 30 or August 1, 2022.
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ASUU had cautioned the government against the proliferation of tertiary institutions and the failure to approve the deployment of the Universities Transparency Accountability System.
The union had also insisted on the release of the White Paper of the visitation panels to universities and the release of revitalisation funds for the development of universities, among others.
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ASUU: Unions to shut banks, airports, others over strike
The Federal Government and workers’ unions in various sectors of the economy were literally at each other’s jugular, yesterday, over the five-month long strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, which has grounded the nation’s ivory towers.
Pointedly, the Association of Nigeria Aviation Professionals, ANAP, and National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, have threatened to shut down airports, banks and financial institutions in solidarity with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, which has directed its members to embark on a nationwide protest on July 26 and 27 in solidarity with the university teachers’ industrial action.
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On a day the National Universities Commission, NUC, lamented the effects of the strike on students, the economy as well as reputation of the nation’s universities, the students’ wing of the Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG,also urged its members in the 19 states of the North, who are affected by the ASUU strike, to join the protest action declared by NLC.
ASUU Strike: NLC To Stage Nationwide Solidarity Protest
The National Labour Congress (NLC) says it will embark on a nationwide protest on July 26 and 27 in solidarity with the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
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ASUU has been on strike for months over the failure of the federal government to honour an agreement on issues bordering on funding universities, as well as on salaries and allowances of lecturers.
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In a letter dated July 15 and addressed to chairpersons of the NLC in the states, Ayuba Wabba, the congress’ national president, and Emmanuel Ugboaja, general secretary, said the protest is aimed at getting “our children back to school and support our unions in Nigeria’s public universities fighting for quality education”.
They designated Labour House in the federal capital territory (FCT) and secretariats of the NLC as the takeoff points for the protest.
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“We bring you fraternal greetings from the national secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC),” the letter read.
“In line with the decisions of the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress held on the 30th of June 2022, we have scheduled as follows the National Days of Protest to get our children back to school and support our unions in Nigeria’s public universities fighting for quality education.
“Dates: Tuesday, 26th July 2022 and Wednesday, 27th July 2022.”
Tinubu shouldn’t broker peace between ASUU, FG – Group
The Peter Obi Support Network on Thursday described the purported talks between the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities towards ending the union’s protracted strike, as a campaign stunt.
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The POSN warned ASUU not to allow itself to be used as political mercenaries by the APC, by refusing to attend any further meetings or allow the APC presidential candidate to broker any kind of truce between the union and the Federal Government.
The organisation advised Tinubu to schedule meetings with the President, Major General Muhamamdu Buhari (retd.), to end the lecturer’s strike and not with the ASUU.
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The Deputy Director of Communications of the POSN, Adegbite Adekunle, said this in a statement issued in Abuja
According to him, the purported talks with ASUU to end the strike “is a campaign stunt by the scandal-prone APC candidate that is designed for failure, adding that Tinubu should be holding meetings with Buhari to end the lecturer’s strike and not with the ASUU.
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The group said, “Nigerian Universities have been on lockdown for more than two years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nigerians are afraid that their students will continue the stay-at-home pandemic unless the ruling party is kicked out of government.
“With this development, the APC further establishes that it does not view anything as sacred in its quest to retain power, including, the endangerment of the academic future of our youths and trammelling the professional potentials of our scholars.
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ASUU strike: Enough is enough, call off now – Buhari charges lecturers
President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, to reconsider their stand on the lingering strike.
Buhari said “enough is enough”, hence ASUU should consider the long-term effect on students and the generational consequences on families, the educational system and the future development of the country.
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He spoke while receiving governors of the All Progressives Congress (APC), legislators and political leaders at his residence in Daura, Katsina State, on Monday.
The president lamented that the strike was already taking a toll on the psychology of parents, students and other stakeholders, throwing up many moral issues that already beg for attention.
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“We hope that ASUU will sympathise with the people on the prolonged strike. Truly, enough is enough for keeping students at home. Don’t hurt the next generation for goodness sake.
ASUU strike: FG working to ensure quick resolution, says minister
Goodluck Opiah, minister of state for education, has assured that the federal government is working to ensure that the strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) ends soon.
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Opiah gave the assurance on Sunday in Owerri, Imo state capital, while fielding questions from reporters at a reception organised in his honour.
ASUU is currently on strike over the federal government’s failure to honour an agreement on issues bordering on funding universities, as well as salaries and allowances of lecturers
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Opiah, who was confirmed by the senate for his ministerial position in June, expressed hope that the disagreement would be resolved in no time.
“I can assure you that government is very concerned about the situation. Even as I speak to you now a lot of thinking, a lot of discussions and meetings are going on with a view to resolving the matter as quickly as possible,” he said
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“I am hopeful that the disagreement between government and ASUU will be resolved soon so that our children can go back to school.”
ASUU strike: Nationwide blackout looms as workers threaten to shut down power sector
Workers in the power sector have threatened to shutdown electricity supply in the country should Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, declare a nationwide protest over the protracted industrial crises in the country’s educational sector.
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Strike: FG breaks ASUU’s rank, plans to release withheld salaries of medical lecturers
THE Federal Government has started processing the withheld salaries of some medical lecturers in various federal universities who opted out of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
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The development is sequel to a letter by the medical lecturers, under the aegis of Medical and Dental Consultants Association, MDCAN, to the Ministers of Education, Labour and Employment, and Finance, Budget and National Planning, requesting for the payment of their withheld March-June, 2022 salaries.
The affected lecturers are from University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, ATBUTH, and the Usman Danfodiyo Teaching Hospital, UDUTH.
A top official of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning who preferred anonymity, confirmed to our correspondent that approval had been granted for payment of the lecturers.
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According to the source, the approval was granted because the medical lecturers harkened to plea by the Federal Government and well-meaning Nigerians for ASUU to stay on duty while negotiating with the Federal Government.
Striking varsity unions lament salary stoppage
Striking university unions, including the Academic Staff Union of Universities and Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, have lamented the effect of the no-work-no-pay policy invoked by the Federal Government, saying it was meant to weaken their resolve.
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The National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke; and SSANU’s National Vice-President, Dr Abdussobur Salaam, spoke in separate interviews with The PUNCH.
Osodeke told our correspondent that the last time he received his salary was in February, adding that the government’s strategy of withholding their salaries is meant to weaken their resolve over the union’s demands.
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He however said members of the union would remain steadfast even if they will have to do menial jobs or embark on farming to get money.
He added that three weeks after they had the last meeting with the renegotiation committee, nothing had been heard from the government.
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He said, “We have not heard anything from the government. This is the third week after the meeting with the renegotiation committee headed by Prof. Briggs. We will keep waiting until they respond.
“Ngige believes that our members will become hungry and beg them, but we will not beg them. We are ready to wait for a year, two years, till they respond.
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“If it means doing taxi work, selling groundnut, doing farming to feed, we will engage in those ventures but he should be rest assured that his strategy of withholding our salaries will not work.”
You Can’t Proscribe Union Activities, ASUU President Tells ObasekiThe National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Osodeke Emmanuel, yesterday told the Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki that he has no constitutional power to proscribe the union’s activities in the state owned institution, Ambrose Alli University.
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The ASUU president, who stated this when he led other national delegates of the union in solidarity protest to the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma over their unpaid salaries and other sundry issues, said ASUU is a registered body that has the right to operate in the country.
He said: “The governor did not establish the union, therefore, he doesn’t have the right or the power to ban the union. He doesn’t have that right. He is just making noise and it will not work.”
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ASUU strike: APC youth leader meets Ngige, consults ASUU President
The All Progressives Congress, APC, National Youth leader, Dayo Israel has revealed his efforts towards putting an end to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
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Israel disclosed that he met and discussed how to end ASUU strike with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige yesterday in Abuja.
In a series of tweets, the APC youth leader said he also met with the presidents of ASUU and the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, over the lingering strike.
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Israel disclosed that his consultations with relevant stakeholders on how resolve the ongoing industrial action will continue.
According to him: “I just met Nigeria’s Minister of Labour Chris Ngige with my Youth Leaders at his home in Abuja to discuss the way forward in putting an end to the ASUU Strike. Earlier in the day, I spoke to the Presidents of ASUU and NANS ahead of my meeting with the Minister.
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“I also spoke to the Chairman of the Wage, Income and Salaries Commission through the Ministers Phone. I can inform Nigerians that a counter offer to ASUU has been put together by the FG and will be presented to Mr President this week.
“Our consultations will continue and we call on all stakeholders to find a middle ground and ensure our youths go back to school this month.”
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ASUU strike: Buhari should resign now
Over the years, Nigeria has suffered the glitches of not just insurmountable challenges but deliberate ones, cleverly woven into a web of barricades by some overbearing elements whose job it is to plunder the country.
These are the enemies strategically planted by providence to ambush the peace, development and accelerated progression of the dear country. They have their ancestry in history and had infiltrated our marketplaces, educational institutions, public offices, churches and so forth.
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No wonder Osita Agwuna wrote a fierce newsletter, which was presented publicly as a lecture under the Chairmanship of Chief Anthony Enahoro in the year 1948. The provocatively blunt newsletter canvasses the call for a sweeping revolution, it borrowed the diction of Thomas Sankara in clamouring for a total overhaul of our different sectors while laying to rest the factors which gave birth to the general strike of 1945, the Burutu Strike of 1947 too.
The radical Zikists, who convened in the year 1946, launched the first-ever audacious attack against the anti-people and highly traumatising policies of the British. They mobilised the Nigerians of that time against the system in place: this was by dissuading them from paying tax to the British but the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons; they canvassed against their obeying their security forces too.
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From the era when the “Call For A Revolution” was prominent till the time when there is a need for #RevolutionNow, #EndSARS, Nigeria has refused to be delivered from the shackles of the myriads of intrigues militating day and night against the soul of the most populous African Country. Democracy, a medicine believed to be the only balm on her woes was reinstated after courageous Nigerians fought earnestly for it.
ASUU strike: NLC to embark on a one-day nationwide protest
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THE NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS (NLC), ANNOUNCED A ONE DAY NATIONWIDE PROTEST OVER THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S INCONCLUSIVE NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE ACADEMIC STAFF UNION OF UNIVERSITIES (ASUU) WHICH HAS LED TO THE EXTENSION OF THE UNION’S STRIKE ACTION.
THE NLC PRESIDENT, MR AYUBA WABBA DISCLOSED THIS AT THE OPENING OF THE CONGRESS’ CENTRAL WORKING COMMITTEE (CWC) MEETING ON THURSDAY IN ABUJA, ACCORDING TO NAN.
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THEY SAID THE PURPOSE OF THE STRIKE IS TO FORCE THE FG TO FIND A CLOSE TO THE NEGOTIATIONS.
Strike: Our problem with ASUU – FG
THE Federal Government through the Ministry of Labour and employment, Sunday gave insight into why no unions in the nation’s university system education were invited to last Thursday’s meeting.
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FG stated that the meeting was to assess the progress made so far on addressing the few outstanding demands of the striking university workers, such as the contentious payment platform and the renegotiation of their conditions of service.
In a statement by Head, Press and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, lamented that the combative and several unfounded allegations by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU against the government, particularly, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, saying, “all insinuations that the Ministry of Labour does not sympathise with the students, unions and parents, of which the Minister is one, should be disabused.
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It noted that “ASUU should know that we are arbitrators and conciliators. We cannot manufacture agreements. Regardless, we are not constrained from listening to the government side and pushing them to do their own bit as quickly as possible.”
FG has revealed when the ASUU strike will be called off. Newsone reports that the Federal Government of Nigeria on Wednesday, June 22, said the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities would soon be called off.
