Monday ultimatum: ASUU to dare FG again

It was uncertain on Saturday whether the Academic
Staff Union of Nigeria Universities would call off its
five-month-old strike, despite the Federal
Government's Monday ultimatum.
There were speculations that the university
lecturers would suspend the strike after the burial
ceremony for an ex-ASUU President, Prof. Festus
Iyayi, who was killed in an accident involving the Kogi
State governor's convoy.
However, sources in the union who spoke to our
correspondents on Saturday insisted that the strike
continues.
The Chairman, ASUU, University of Benin, Dr. Tony
Monye-Emina said, "The strike has not been called
off. The authority (of the institution) is following
government's directive; we are not shifting our
stand. It is not a local strike.
"It is not true we are calling off the strike. How can
we be holding a meeting tonight? The burial is going
on and it continues tomorrow (today)."
Also, ASUU in Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun
State, vowed not to obey government's order that
lecturers should return to classroom on Monday.
The Chairman, ASUU, OOU chapter, Dr. Nasir
Adesola said the lecturers would not succumb to
threats by government to sack them.
Adesola, who is also the South-West Coordinator,
ASUU, stressed that since the lecturers did not go on
strike in the first instance because of government,
they would not return to work by coercion from
government.
He stated that the lecturers would only go back to the
classroom when the government had met their
demands.
"We didn't go on strike because of government
order. The reasons for which we embarked on the
strike have not been discharged by the government.
Those orders of government are just part of
executive recklessness. We are not returning to
work on Monday," Adesola said.
Similarly, the ASUU Chairman in Enugu State
University of Technology, Prof. Gab Agu, said
lecturers would not resume on Monday. He said it
was a rumour that the union would call of the strike.
He stated that the National Executive Council of ASUU
would meet and agree before the strike could be
called off.
Same with ASUU in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka,
where the Chairman, Dr. Ifeanyi Abada, said only the
ASUU NEC could announce the suspension of the
strike.
The Governing Council of the University of Ibadan
had on Friday, based on the directives of the
Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Federal Universities
and the National Universities Commission, said the
institution would be re-opened on January 4, 2014.
In the official bulletin of the university, which was
signed by its Registrar and Secretary to the Council,
Mr. Olujimi Olukoya, the council explained that the
re-opening became necessary in view of the
consideration of all matters relating to the on-going
ASUU strike, at its recent meeting.