Why We Won’t Call Off Strike- ASUU Tells FG

Naija news.

18.07.2013, 8:07  Local

Striking university lecturers on Wednesday insisted that they would not return to the classrooms until the Federal Government honoured fully the 2009 agreement and Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two parties.

This came as there were conflicting reports from the University of Jos over the institution post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

While the striking teachers insisted on Wednesday that the exercise would not hold, the school authorities said the screening was in progress.

University lecturers under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a nationwide industrial action on July 1, 2013.

However, the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Adesola Nassir, during a briefing at the University of Lagos, on Wednesday insisted that the strike would not end until the Federal Government respected the signed pact.

The zone has members drawn from UNILAG, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State; Lagos State University, Ojo; Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagu, Ogun State and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Nassir explained that though the union met with the government's representatives, including the members of the Senate Committee on Education last Monday, the meeting ended in a deadlock.

He said, "This is because the Federal Government is still not being sincere to address the issues at stake.

"The strike will remain for as long as it takes the Federal Government to be faithful to the implementation of the 2009 agreement and its renegotiation as contained in the Memorandum of Understanding reached by both parties in January last year."

He explained that the FG's response to the action since it started had shown that it was not ready to address the challenges facing the nation's university system.