ASUU: FG’s Appeal to Shelve Strike Coming Too Late

By Precious Kuforiji

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has dismissed the Federal Government’s last-minute plea to halt its planned warning strike, describing it as “a little too late.”
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Speaking on Thursday on Channels Television’s breakfast program, ‘The Morning Brief’, Chris Piwuna, the president of ASUU, stated that the strike will commence on October 13 as previously planned, unless the government takes concrete action. 

He said that the government has failed to act promptly on the union’s long-standing demands.
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‎“The problem we have with this government is that they are slow in responding to our demands,” Piwuna said.
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‎He recalled that the union had given the government three weeks to address its grievances after a previous meeting in Sokoto, but no response came forth from the FG.
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‎“We went for a meeting in Sokoto, and at that time we were about to embark on a strike action. They gave us three weeks, we accepted the three weeks, but we never heard a word from them until the three weeks elapsed,” he said.

Piwuna also said that the government only reached out two working days before the proposed strike, appealing for it to be suspended.

The strike, he said, is primarily to compel the government to sign and implement the renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement.
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‎Piwuna admitted that some of its demands, like stopping the proliferation of universities and earned academic allowances, have been met. 
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