The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced a nationwide strike following the Federal Government’s inability to implement agreements it reached with the union.
The strike was declared on Monday during a press conference addressed by the union’s President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, who said the strike will be “comprehensive and total”
The announcement follows the decision reached in a meeting by the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union held at the University of Lagos, Akoka.
Members of NEC, including ASUU leaders across campuses, had been in a two-day closed-door meeting over the federal government’s inability to fulfil their demands, including the revitalisation of public universities, University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) promotion arrears, earned academic allowances, implementation of the renegotiated 2009 ASUU-FGN agreement and discrepancies in the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS).
Meanwhile, ASUU has faulted the promotion of Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, as a professor.
The union after its National Executive Council meeting declared the promotion as “illegal”.
This was declared at a press conference addressed by the President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, on Monday.
He said, “You cannot be a minister and a lecturer in a university. It is an encouragement of illegality.
“Pantami has to quit as a minister and be tried for doing double jobs within the same federal system. He is not qualified. Pantami should not be treated as a professor.”
In September 2021, Pantami, alongside seven academics were elevated by the council of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri to the position of a professorship at the council’s 186th meeting.
The minister’s elevation has generated controversy, with many faulting FUTO on the promotion of the minister, who was not teaching in the university and whose highest academic attainment was reportedly a lecturer before he ventured into politics.
“We have resolved to sanction ASUU members involved in his promotion and the VC of FUTO,” he added.
