Breaking News: ASUU suspends strike

ABUJA—-ACADEMIC Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) last night suspended the three month old strike after signing all agreements with the Federal Government.

The agreement was reached at the through end of the conciliatory meeting held at the instance of the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige and his Education counterpart, Malam Adamu Adamu. 

The parties brokered the truce few hours after a team of Students from National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) threatened showdown against the leadership of ASUU who attended the negotiation. Ngige who read the agreement signed by both parties, expressed optimism that the strike would be suspended. 

He said, “This is going to be a conclusive meeting and conciliatory meeting between Federal Government and ASUU. “This dispute culminated into a strike that started on the 5th of November, 2018.” 

According to him the parties unanimously resolved the eight contentious issues that had prolonged the strike. He noted that the issue of the NUMPENCO has been resolved as ASUU collected the licence on the 28th January, 2019. Besides, the Minister said that the Visitation panel has also been instituted and will commence work on 2nd March with the view to sanitizing the tertiary institutions, adding that it was in tandem with anti corruption campaign.

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ASUU Strike: No resumption, no election – NANS

UNDERGRADUATES who are affected by the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, have vowed to disrupt the elections slated for February 16 if the three-month old strike is not called off. 

In a chat with Vanguard, the leadership of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS said the industrial action by both unions has not only hindered their academic pursuits, but it has also disenfranchised about 22.3million students who had registered at the INEC offices nearest to their institutions. Its president, Comrade Danielson Bamidele Akpan said: ‘’The continuous strike action by both ASUU and ASUP has not only brought increased pain on students and their parents,   it is now seen by us as a deliberate ploy to disenfranchise our members, especially those who registered within their school environments and are presently in their various homes.  

“Consequently, Nigerian students have decided to take their destinies in their hands, enough of the politics being played with our future. “We wish to inform the general public that Nigerian students would resist any election from holding in any part of the country should our campuses remain shut till election date. 

He said the students are citizens of Nigeria “and on no account shall we allow this sinister disenfranchisement of the largest voting population of our citizens in a major election to pass due to no fault of theirs. We have 22.3 million registered students, eligible to change the destiny of the nation. We refused to be sacrificed in exercising this obligatory duty to our nation at this crucial moment. Our voices must be heard and our votes must count.” Akpan said: 

“After a careful observation of the continued insensitive shut down of our universities due to the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics  wish to unapologetically declare Operation no resumption, no election. Going down memory lane of the academic disruption faced by tertiary institutions in the last one year, Akpan said: 

“On 4th November, 2018, the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on an indefinite strike which grounded all academic activities on our campuses till date. Prior to theirs, the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, had also embarked on same industrial action, shutting down all Colleges of Education. 

“NANS quickly swung into action requesting and forcing the Federal Ministry of Education, NCCE and COEASU to an immediate negotiation table while NANS observed the proceedings of the discussions for quick resolution. Compromise was reached and the strike action was called off without unnecessary delay of academic resumption. 

“However, after few days of COEASU suspending their strike, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics began theirs. Both ASUU and ASUP have since been on strike, forcing millions of our members to stay at home with possible consequence of disenfranchisement in the forthcoming general elections beginning on February 16th. 

“In solidarity, Nigerian students embarked on  simultaneous nationwide protest across the 36 states of the federation with a mother rally at Abuja on November 19th, 2018. 

The rally was tagged: Save Education Rally across the federation, to create awareness on the state of education in the country, after which we presented a position paper of our demands to the   Federal Government, the Press and general public. 

“Sadly, it appears that the gains recorded in the last few weeks had been eroded by the continued shut down of our schools and barely 12 days to commencement of the general elections. It is also instructive to note that the students’ constituency constitutes the largest segment of registered voters with 22.3 million as released by INEC. 

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ASUU branches vote to continue strike

At least 80% of members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have voted for the continuation of the ongoing nationwide strike.


It was gathered that over 200 members of the University of Ibadan, UI, chapter of the Union who attended the congress voted for the continuation of the strike while a little above 50 voted for its suspension with conditions.


According to one of the ASUU members, the members who voted did not even consider the third option which states that the strike should be suspended with conditions.


Speaking after the referendum, Dr. Deji Omole, Chairman of the University of Ibadan Chapter, said the referendum was conducted to know if the union should end the strike or not.


He affirmed that members voted for the continuation of the strike because the government is yet to meet all of its demand. ASUU and the Nigerian government are yet to come to an agreement on funds for the revitalisation of universities.


The union is demanding N50billion but the FG released only N25billion, saying it does not have N50billion. Speaking after the last meeting, Chris Ngige, Minister for Labour and Employment said, “We have met it halfway. We have offered what we have; we don’t have N50 billion.”

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ASUU: Lecturers reject FG’s offer, take major decision

Chapters of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have voted to continue the ongoing strike.

The decision was reached after a nationwide referendum conducted by the chapters of the union on Tuesday to decide whether to suspend the strike or not.

The leadership of the union had on Monday directed that all chapters of the union conduct referendum to decided whether or not the strike would be called off.

The national leadership of the Union had directed its Zonal coordinators to meet with their Branch chairpersons to conduct the referendum on the offers of government and feed it back.

In a tweet on Tuesday night, ASUU said, “The outcome of referendum: In our pursuit to resolve the lingering issues between our union @ASUUNGR and the Federal government @AsoRock. The union conducted referenda across its various zones.

“Results at the zonal congress showed that majority of the members voted for the continuation of the strike because they doubted the government ’s sincerity in fulfilling its new promises.”

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ASUU: Lecturers give update on strike as FG meets major demand

The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has provided update on the ongoing strike as the Federal Government, yesterday, met one of its major demands.

This is as the union has received the certificate of operation for Nigerian University Pension Management Company, NUPEMCO, from the National Pension Commission.

The refusal of the regulatory agency to approve the teachers’ union’s pension commission for operation has been one of the major issues in the dispute between ASUU and the Federal Government.

However, the National Pension Council, the regulatory agency for the country’s pension companies, granted the union the certificate of operation on Monday.

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in a short message sent across to members of the union, yesterday, said ASUU received the certificate at about 11:20 a.m.

The message reads, “Dear Comrade, We collected the final letter of approval of NUPEMCO operational license at about 11.20a.m in PENCOM office. Profound appreciation goes to all who prepared the ground and made this possible.

“While congratulating all our members for this landmark achievement of the union, we also thank them for their patience. The struggle continues! Biodun Ogunyemi.”

Prof. Ogunyemi earlier told the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, that the leadership was still consulting with its members over offers made by the federal government.

He said the government made some offers in the course of meetings with ASUU, which are still being deliberated on.

“We are still consulting with our chapters across the country. There are promises that government made and we are trying to consult with the various university chapters on the options before the union.

“By the time we are fully aware of what is left of our demands from what the government is offering, then we will know what steps to take, even as negotiations with the government continues.

“For instance, we are in touch with about 20 universities that are affected, to be sure of the level of implementation.

“By the time we finish our assessment, we will now send our response back to the government, concerning the level of implementation.

“And depending on the outcome of our further engagements with government, we will now get back to our members,” he said.

Ogunyemi said ASUU was expected to be involved in another round of meeting with the government within the week, adding that he expected a positive outcome.

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ASUU: Those who pulled out of strike will regret it

When our correspondent contacted the ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, for his reaction to the development and the perceived disunity in the union’s ranks, he said the institutions that pulled out of the strike due to pressure from their vice-chancellors, or governing councils, would regret their actions in the future.

Ogunyemi said, “Those universities perceived as pulling out are certainly not against what we are asking for. Our members are in institutions like the Obafemi Awolowo University, which decided to work against us and deliberately sabotaged our efforts to reposition the universities.

“Those who said they do not agree with us are not against the funds for revitalisation that we are demanding. They are not against academic allowances or the payments of shortfalls that we ask for. They are not against fixing our universities.

“A lot of factors have to be considered when we talk about some universities pulling out. It is not that they actually mean to do so. Some intervening forces or variables may be at work. There are cases where vice-chancellors are overzealous, although they will be the greatest beneficiaries of what we are asking for. Some institutions were compelled by their governing councils to resume academic activities. In other situations, some governors or vice-chancellors deliberately created problems for us.

<“Those vice-chancellors usually end up regretting their activities, but that does not stop us from resorting to our in-house procedure in dealing with chapters that pull out of national strikes. They will all be subjected to our in-house procedures.”

Ogunyemi also said that 90 per cent of the union’s members were still in support of the strike and they were not bothered about chapters that pulled out.

“Over 90 per cent of our members are still together and that is good enough for us because what we are doing now is a movement and those who fail to participate will regret their actions. They know that when the Federal Government releases funds for revitalisation, all public universities will be covered.  The conscience of those who refused to participate in the strike will continue to prick them. Those who sabotaged us will have a moral burden and that is what we have always told them.

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ASUU: End strike now – Buhari tells Ngige

President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, to end the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Ngige made the disclosure during the resumed negotiation with the leadership of ASUU on Monday.

A statement issued by the Assistant Director, Press at the ministry, Rhoda Illiya, said Buhari ordered Ngige that the three-month strike must be called off at the end of the meeting on Monday.

The university lecturers embarked on an indefinite strike on November 4, demanding improved funding of universities and implementation of previous agreements with the government.

“Mr President has directed me to pass the night here until all issues that have kept our children away from school are resolved and the strike called off.

“The president has also directed me to impress upon you, the imperative of little sacrifice from all sides, knowing fully well that the revenue of the Federation has dwindled from what it was before the present administration assumed office,” Ngige said.

He said Buhari was concerned by the prevailing crisis in the university system, reason for his steady commitment to a “holistic approach to tackling the rot through adequate funding, notwithstanding the dwindling accruals.

“The president told me to assure you of his determination to reposition our universities as he would do everything possible to cast the present challenges in our tertiary education to the dustbin of history,” he added.

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