University Strike: FG yet to meet demands, says ASUU

The Academic Staff Union of Universities has urged Nigerians to reject the Federal Government's assertions that it has complied with the union's requests.

The claims made by the Federal Government are false, according to Prof. Akinwole Ayoola, the ASUU chairman of the University of Ibadan.

According to the union, all of its chapters that initiated the now more than six-month-old strike are still participating in it and are steadfastly committed to obtaining the funding that public universities require from the government in order to thrive and compete internationally.

The organization further claimed that professors in Nigerian public universities had been sacrificing their wellbeing for the sake of maintaining public universities, and that it would fight any attempts to reduce intellectuals to serfs.

"Nigerians should ignore the lies of the Federal Government," he stated. None of the seven demands made by the union have been met by the federal government.

"Before going on strike in 2022, the union gave the federal government a 14-month notice. Before the union was obliged to call the strike on February 14, 2022, not even the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council's efforts in 2021 were successful.

"Before announcing this strike, we held off for 14 months, from December 2020 to February 2022. I'm arguing that the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council intervened in 2021, when we would have declared the strike, after receiving 14 months' notice and 14 months' worth of commitments. We gave them a month, but nothing happened. Heroes often pass away before they can be properly honored, but our bond will endure. We won't pass away. We will live to see this battle to its conclusion.