>
By Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The Academic Staff Union of Universities(ASUU) has explained that the failure of the Federal Government(FG) to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action within the four-week warning strike, was the reason it extended its ongoing strike by eight weeks.
National President of the union, Emmanuel Osodeke, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja, on Monday.
Osodeke noted that members of the National Executive Council(NEC) during their meeting on Sunday concluded that they would give the FG eight weeks to address all the issues “in concrete terms” so that students would resume.
“NEC acknowledged the intervention efforts, in various ways, by patriots and friends of genuine national development (students, parents, journalists, trade union leaders, civil society activists etc.) to expeditiously resolve the crisis which Govemment’s disposition had allowed to fester.
“However, ASUU, as a union of intellectuals, has historic obligations to make governments honour agreements.
“NEC, having taken reports on the engagements of the Trustees and Principal Officers with the Government, concluded that Government had failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action within the four-week roll-over strike period and resolved that the strike be rolled over for another eight weeks to give Government more time to address all the issues in concrete terms so that our students will resume as soon as possible.
“The roll-over strike shall commence by 12.00am on Monday, 14th March 2022,” he said.