By Gabriella Chinwendu Ayigbo

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has warned that it will embark on a nationwide strike if the federal government fails to honour its 2009 agreement with the union.

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has signalled its intent to go on a nationwide strike if the federal government fails to fulfil the demands from their 2009 pact. At a news conference in Calabar, the chairman of the University of Calabar chapter, Dr. Peter Ubi, said that the union’s national body would announce the industrial action after a meeting scheduled for Thursday, August 28th.

He voiced his annoyance over the government’s continued failure to keep promises to improve the standard of university education. He stated the union’s key demands, which include revisiting deals of the 2009 agreement, ensuring stability for Nigerian universities, revival of facilities, and the payment of overdue wages and promotion arrears.

The UNICAL ASUU chairman further stated that the government, in its usual manner, has paid deaf ears to their demands and has constantly pushed the union to embark on strike. He stressed that the union has exhausted all strategies for settling the conflict, leaving them with no other option but to embark on industrial action to urge necessary adjustments.

Similarly, the UNICAL chapter addressed the federal government’s freeze on creating new universities, asking that state and private institutions also be included. ASUU claims that this would help limit the proliferation of universities without standards.

The Federal Government had recently enforced a seven-year halt on the establishment of new federal universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education, citing the decline in academic quality and overstretched resources. In spite of this enforcement, the Federal Executive Council recently authorised the creation of nine new universities.

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