The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has disclosed that it called off its 8-month strike action to obey the order of the industrial court which mandated its workers’ return to the classroom.
The union further disclosed that they had to heed the demands of the court, noting that they are law-abiding and would not want to do anything contrary to what the law demands.
Recall that following the suspension of its strike, ASUU disclosed that some issues were still unresolved, however, striking lectures will still return to the classroom.
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This was made known by the Union’s chairman Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke during an interview with one of Nigeria’s media stations, Channels Television.
See What he said, “As you have seen from our press release – although they were interventions by the Speaker (Femi Gbajabiamila) and others – the major reason we are resuming is that we are obeying the industrial court’s judgment. The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreements signed.
“We are resuming because we are a law-abiding organization and we don’t want to break the law. We are also hoping that the intervention of the Speaker as promised by him will resolve this problem within a very short time. So, the issues have not been resolved but we would resume because of that court injunction.”
Prof. Osodeke further went on to condemn the action of the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr. Chris Ngige, stating that he was wrong for taking the matter to court, as he argued that the best way to tackle trade disputes involving academics is through negotiation.
He said, “But one of the ministers, the Minister of Labour, believes that the best way is to force them to class. But because of the interest of the Nigerian people the students, their parents, and the Speaker who is intervening our members will teach.’’
It would be recalled that ASUU embarked on its industrial strike action on February 14, 2022, which lasted for a period of 8-months after it was suspended in the month of October.
The union had disclosed that one of its major reasons for embarking on the strike was due to the 2009 revitalization fund owed by the federal government which they failed to pay.
After much agitation from the union, their demands however fell on the deaf ears of the government as they were reluctant to pay the union the fund owed. After some intervention from President Muhammadu Buhari and the Speaker of the house of reps Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, the union decided to suspend its strike action.
However, a lot of Nigerians are worried that the union might still embark on a strike action in the future, after it stated that it called off the strike action, although all issues weren’t fully resolved.