We Won’t Call Off Strike – ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated  that the ongoing indefinite strike will not be called off soon.

Contrary to wide speculations that the strike will be called off tomorrow,  the national president of ASUU, Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie, insisted that  said the speculation was  a far cry from reality as the government was still running in circles.

The ASUU boss, who spoke during a telephone interview with LEADERSHIP yesterday, said the ongoing strike would be one of the issues that would be discussed by the lecturers.

He said, “The 70 years retirement age is still an issue and we are not interested in what the government has given and what it hasn’t given. We need to be convinced.

Didn’t Prof Dora Akunyili on national television in 2009 state that the 70 years retirement age had been approved? The same in 2010, 2011 and we are now in 2012, and still discussing it.”

He noted that the issue had been discussed in the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and had been approved by the National Assembly and was now on the table of President Goodluck Jonathan for his appendage to make it a law.

He said, “The same manner it was  treated all these years is still the manner it is treated today.” 

LEADERSHIP recalls that after about four hours behind closed doors in a meeting with the federal government, ASUU was unable to say categorically whether it will end the strike which had lasted for over 55 days.

In a related development, ASUU yesterday  blamed the rising rate of insecurity in Nigeria on government’s failure to resolve major socio-economic problems in the country.
In a statement signed by its National President, Awuzie, in Abuja, ASUU expressed concern over loss of innocent citizens following unresolved national conflict.

Awuzie said changes announced and intended by the federal government in the nation’s security agencies would not address the current security challenges.

According to him, the root cause of the current security challenge lies in the repeated failure of the ruling class to resolve the problems.

He said Nigerians were peace loving people who were interested in the unity of the country but noted that the politics of the ruling class was a great threat to the stability of the country.

Meanwhile, the Director General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri,  has appealed to the ASUU to call off the ongoing strike  to save the Nigerian youths from being recruited by enemies of the state to foment trouble. 

Omeri  made this appeal yesterday in Abuja when the leadership of the Nigerian Youth Parliament paid him a courtesy visit to congratulate him on his appointment as the new helmsman of the NOA.