Update: ASUU Strike Continues as Meeting With Federal Government Stalemated

The meeting between the federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU on Thursday, ended in a deadlock.

The Labour Minister, Chris Ngige, in his opening remarks, accused ASUU of not following the proper procedure before starting the strike. “There must be a mandatory letter of 15 days to labour, to education before going on strike,” he said, referring to the ministries of labour and education. “All agreements are supposed to be domiciled in ministry of labour in order to track implementation as agreement gives room to renegotiation,” Mr. Ngige.

Responding ASUU president, Biodun Ogunyemi, said Mr. Ngige had taken side with his education colleague, Adamu Adamu, and that ASUU informed relevant ministries before embarking on strike. “There was a letter dated July 10 to inform the major stakeholders. In the last 10 months, we’ve written 10 letters trying to reach out to relevant stakeholders after suspending the seven days warning strike in November last year,” he said. “This is not a fresh action and we are open to suggestions.”

The meeting later went into a technical session. In the end, the ASUU chairman said the strike continued and that the union would revert to the government next week.