August 31, (THEWILL) – Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has advised the Federal Government to engage in collaborative negotiations with striking Varsity lecturers in good faith, so that Nigerian students can continue their educational programmes.
Obi, in a statement, published on his verified Twitter account on Wednesday, said it was unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable that the government would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of students.
He noted that the strike had lingered for so long, while calling on the Government to resolve its dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Earlier, Obi in an interview with Nigerian Youtuber, Adeola Fayehun, promised that if elected president, he would transform the educational sector and no strike action would be allowed to linger for up to six months.
ASUU, on Monday, extended its six-month-old strike indefinitely, citing the government’s failure to meet its demands.
THEWILL reported that lecturers of the Federal Government owned universities had embarked on strike since February 14, 2022, to demand release of revitalisation funds for universities; deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; release of earned allowances; the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and other issues involving the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement;
Shortly after the commencement of the strike, other university-based unions, including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities (NASU) and other allied educational institutions, also embarked on strike to push their demands.
In a bid to end the strike, the government had set up a negotiation team, led by the Pro-Chancellor of the Federal University of Lokoja, Nimi Briggs, to look into negotiations with the unions.
Though, SSANU, NASU and NAAT have suspended their strike actions, the negotiations between the government and ASUU had stalled over backlog salaries.
While ASUU insisted on the payment of the backlog salaries of members, the Federal Government on its part had maintained a policy of ‘No Work, No Pay’.
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