The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has criticised the federal government’s last-minute appeal to suspend its planned strike, describing it as “too little, too late.”
Speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Thursday, ASUU President Chris Piwuna said the government is solely responsible for the breakdown in communication and the union’s decision to proceed with industrial action.
According to Piwuna, the government failed to engage the union in meaningful dialogue despite being given ample time to respond to its long-standing demands.
“The problem we have with this government and this Ministry of Education is that they are slow in responding to our demands,” Piwuna said.
“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.”
The ASUU president revealed that the government only reached out two working days before the scheduled strike to plead for suspension of the action.
“Yesterday, they appealed to us not to embark on action. Our 2009 agreement — which is still being renegotiated after eight years — remains undone.
We have not concluded on it, and two working days before a strike action, you come to appeal to us. I think the appeal has come a little too late,” he said.
Piwuna criticised the government for its continued neglect of the education sector and failure to honour agreements reached with the union, warning that ASUU members are running out of patience.
He also stressed that the union’s planned strike is aimed at compelling the government to implement the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, address salary arrears, and improve funding for public universities.
