Strike: ASUU Back In Court, Files Appeal Against Industrial Court Judgement

ASUU has again filed an appeal against the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria which ordered the striking lecturers to return back to work.

CityNews Nigeria reports that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has again filed an appeal seeking the nullification of the judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, NIC, which ruled that the lecturers must return to the classroom.

The Counsel for ASUU, Femi Falana, SAN made this known while speaking with some reporters in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Saturday.

This online media platform recalls that Justice Hamman Polycarp of the Industrial Court had on September 21, ordered the striking lecturers to go back to work.

But ASUU filed an appeal before the Appeal Court in Abuja, intending to set aside the Industrial Court judgement.

However, the appellate court noted that it would not hear ASUU’s appeal should the union fail to obey the ruling of the lower court.

The Appeal Court, therefore, on October 7, ordered the striking lecturers to resume work with immediate effect.

The 8-month strike was suspended on October 14. Academic activities have fully resumed in some Public Universities while others have scheduled their resumption for the coming days.

Falan said yesterday that the fresh appeal was filed the same day the suspension of the prolonged industrial action was announced.

He, however, said, “date for a hearing has not been fixed yet”.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is Nigerian’s union of university academic staff, founded in 1978. ASUU is an offshoot of the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT) which was established in 1965. At that time, NAUT consisted of only five universities in total including the University of Ibadan, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the University of Ife and the University of Lagos.

Following the eight months strike, this present industrial action has now become the second longest-running strike by the same union since the return to democracy.  The longest-running strike stands at 270 days, which began in 2020.

Since 1999, a 23-year period, there have been 16 ASUU strikes; including this one. ASUU has made its demands clear. There have been past negotiations as well as agreements based on those negotiations.