Latest ASUU News On Resumption and ASUU Strike Update Today, 14th September 2022 can be accessed below.
Newsone Naija has compiled the latest ASUU news on the current strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), a Nigerian union of university academic staff.
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Below is the latest Asuu strike update, asuu latest news on resumption and ASUU strike news today, Wednesday, 14th September 2022, compiled by Newsone Nigeria.
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has adjourned to September the 16th, 2022 the suit filed by the Federal Government against the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over the industrial action embarked upon by the union about seven months ago.
The Federal Government approached the court sitting in Abuja, requesting an order for ASUU to resume it continues to engage the union to address their dispute.
A statement by the Head, Press and Public Relations at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, Olajide Oshundun, indicated that the matter was referred to the registrar of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria by the Minister, Chris Ngige on Thursday 8 September.
At Monday’s proceedings, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) sought to join the suit as an interested party.
SERAP’s lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegnoruwa (SAN) said his client had filed a similar suit to compel the Federal Government to honour its 2009 agreement with the striking lecturers.
He said SERAP’s request to join in the matter is based on the need to forestall the duplicity of outcomes concerning the industrial dispute. However, counsel to the Federal Government, Tijjani Gazali (SAN) opposes SERAP’s application to consolidate the suits.
He told the judge that SERAP’s application was premature as the case was billed for mention on Monday. Counsel to ASUU, Femi Falana, however, argued that he was aware of the efforts by lawyers to file court papers in the suit on Monday.
The judge ruled that the suit is not ripe for consolidation by SERAP. The judge said he was only presiding over the matter as a vacation judge and that the case would be assigned to another judge for adjudication.
He ordered the parties in the suit to file and exchange court documents as he adjourned the matter to Friday, 16 September 2022.
The raging dispute between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that has kept many universities shut for more than seven months will shift to the Industrial court next Monday.
ASUU had embarked on strike since February 15 to protest alleged decay of infrastructure at the various institutions, as well as neglect of the welfare of its members.
A reliable source at the Federal Ministry of Labour told THISDAY last night that the ministry’s Trade Dispute Department had filed a case before the Industrial Arbitration Court in Abuja and that the hearing would commence next Monday.
According to the source, “The federal government has filed a case at the Industrial Court challenging the continued strike by the university teachers. This is in conformity with Section 17 of the Trade Dispute Act.”
The National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has called on the Federal Government to resolve, within working days, the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike.
This was disclosed in a press statement issued by the NANS’s factional President, Umar Faruk Lawal, at Abuja, on Thursday.
Lawal said Nigerian students’ patience has been stretched beyond limits, following the effect of the industrial action by ASUU.
He said, “Academic Staff Union (ASUU) has been on strike for almost eight months, the academic calendar cannot be used as a parameter for years of studies anymore, as students keep suffering from the long-term effect of the strike. The Nigerian students’ patience has been stretched beyond its elastic limit and they have resolved to liberate themselves from the recurring effect of the industrial action by ASUU”.
The Minister of Education Adamu Adamu believes Nigerians do not have “good reasons” to be disappointed with the Federal Government’s handling of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strike.
He said this on Wednesday during an interview on Channel Television’s Politics Today.
The lecturers have been on strike since February 14th but negotiations between them and the Federal Government have thus far not yielded results, a development that has triggered reactions from Nigerians.
When asked if Nigerians should be disappointed over the government’s inability to resolve the impasse, he said the government is not at fault.
“If Nigerians are disappointed, I think they don’t have very good reasons to be disappointed with the government on this,” he said. “Why should they be disappointed? Just tell me in your opinion, how is it the fault of the government and not that of the union?
“You can only blame the Federal Government if it refuses to do what it is supposed to do — make the offer to satisfy their demands. There is no demand that can be satisfied 100 percent by any government.”
President Muhammadu Buhari has been urged to end the lingering Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, strike, by emulating the strategy adopted by former Predident Goodluck Jonathan in November 2013, during which he personally presided over the meeting with the aggrieved lecturers and had the knotty issues resolved.
Convener of the Middle Belt Movement for Justice and Peace, MBMJP, Joe Bukka, who gave the advise, yesterday, in Makurdi, said it had become imperative for the President to personally step into the matter to have it resolved, in the interest of all parties, without further delay.
He said: “The former President Jonathan’s strategy paid off in November 2013, when the strike, at the time, lasted for four months and it became obvious that Nigerians resented the government for allowing the strike to linger for that long when the negotiators, on the part of the government, failed to make any headway.
“The then President Jonathan rose to the occasion, he summoned all the relevant government functionaries and the leadership of ASUU to a meeting which he personally presided over.
“He took charge of the negotiations in a sitting that lasted about 12 hours and at the end of that meeting agreements were reached, immediate actions taken and the strike was called off to the relief of all Nigerians.
“We urge President Buhari to adopt the same strategy at this time to have the strike called off because it is a national embarrassment that our public universities have remained shut for this long and our leaders are busy talking politics without taking cognisance of the fact that a country is in trouble when its human capital development is stagnated.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has asked the Federal Government to channel the recovered $23 million Abacha loot to meet its demands.
ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke made the call on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, while decrying the continued closure of public universities as a result of the protracted strike by lecturers.
Last Tuesday, the Federal Government and the US signed an agreement to repatriate a new batch of funds looted by the former Nigerian head of state, Sani Abacha.
Amid the government’s plan to utilise the money for the completion of the Abuja-Kano road, Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and the Second Niger Bridge, the ASUU President believes the current administration would have deployed the recovered money to education if it truly loves the sector.
Weighing on whether the Abacha loot should be diverted to the nation’s education, Osodeke said: “Definitely. Let’s use a typical man as an example, you have a house and your child is sick seriously and you were paid money that you were not expecting. Where will you put the money?”
“That child should be the first thing you will treat. Is it not? Before you will start thinking about how you are going to buy clothes.
“Your universities are shut for six months. You now have access to a fund you were not expecting, if you really love education, where should you put the money? In that particular place, they said they don’t have money. We need to love this country.”
The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has described the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as “unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable.
He said that the strike has lingered for far too long and that the Nigerian government must immediately engage in “collaborative negotiations” with the aggrieved lecturers of public universities.
Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, spoke in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday.
He lamented the consequences of the protracted industrial action which is now in its seventh month, and already tagged indefinite by the striking lecturers’ union.
He said; “Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable that FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students.
“It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith.”
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has stated how his administration resolved a four-month old strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in one day.
He said this on Wednesday in Abuja at the 70th birthday celebration of Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, organised by The Kukah Centre.
Newsone reports that the university lecturers have been on strike since February this over over irreconcilable difference with the Federal Government.
“The society we are managing is complex, now we are talking about ASUU strike, during my time too, ASUU had four months of strike, different committees were meeting and meeting and nothing was working. I said how can our children stay out of school for four months? So I had to call a meeting of all the leadership of ASUU.
“I presided over the meeting with my vice president, the Attorney General was there, I said that that night we must solve the problem. The Attorney General was there, Second to the Government of the Federation was there, the ministers of education were there, the labor ministers were there the finance ministers, everybody that has to do with it.
The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has come under sharp criticism for referring to other universities that announced resumption despite the union’s ongoing strike as “quacks.”
The ASUU president’s comment has generated reactions among Nigerians including university scholars and Nigerian academics.
For instance, the management of Ekiti State University (EKSU) has replied to Mr Osodeke, rejecting its categorisation among ‘quack’ universities, even as it described the comments as “totally unacceptable and condemnable”.
The university, therefore, demanded a retraction and an apology from the president.
“The Management calls on Professor Osodeke to toe the path of honour by retracting the provocative remark and tender an unreserved apology without further delay,” it said in a statement by its Head of Directorate of Information and Corporate Affairs, Bode Olofinmuagun.
The statement noted that the university viewed the comments as “denigrating, unfortunate, reckless and unwarranted.”
THE Nnamdi Azikiwe University branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has announced that the ongoing strike embarked upon by the lecturers has officially been made indefinite.
After a Congress in Awka, the chairman of the union, Comrade Stephen Ufoaroh said UNIZIK is fully in support of the national, zonal and branch leaderships on their stand concerning the strike.
He said: “Against the backdrop of government’s intransigence and lack of commitment to reaching an agreement with ASUU on the contentious issues after over six months of industrial action, ASUU-NAU has ultimately resolved for a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike going forward, until all issues at stake are satisfactorily resolved between the Union and the Federal Government.
“ASUU NAU Congress reaffirms support for the national, zonal and branch leaderships of the union in their management of the struggle to save the soul of the public universities in Nigeria, where over 95% of Nigerian students study, and for being a voice for the voiceless citizens of Nigeria”.
That’s the ASUU strike update today, check back for more updates. Also, get more trending Naija news on Newsone Nigeria.