Asuu Commences Indefinite Strike

The previous week, I posted an article talking about the plans of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in Nigeria to go on an indefinite strike. Just now, fresh reports have come in that the Plateau State University chapter of ASUU has commenced their indefinite strike as of today December 22nd, 2021.

The decision to go on this indefinite strike was made in other to emphasize their demands for improved welfare and better working environment.

In the statement that was issued yesterday, December 21st, 2021, by both the chairman, Dr. Hassan Zitta and the secretary, Deme Bitrus of the Plateau State University (PLASU), ASUU had decided to commence the strike after its Congress meeting on Monday, 20th of December, 2021.

It was stated that the Plateau State government had failed to honour its agreement that it had made with the Union since earlier this year and hence the need for an industrial action was required to remind and emphasize their demands.

Now the Union in this statement explained that lingering issues border around the inability of the State government to deal with the rising of insecurity issues around the University and the non-payment of the earned allowances to the University lecturers.

They also complained about the scarcity of accommodation for both students on campus and the staff and demanded the need for the State government to construct more lecture halls within the school premises among other things.

The Union stated, "In our Congress, which was held on Monday, Dec. 20th, members reviewed the level of implementation of the Plateau State government and ASUU-PLASU agreement."

It was resolved that the State government having signed this agreement with the Academic Union on the 21st of March, 2021, has failed to keep to the terms of agreement.

The Congress also stated that the government had failed to address security issues by deploying the services of the civil defence corps.

ASUU said that, "The government had failed to locate a functioning police outpost within the University community and its inability to settle the national minimum wage within the first three months of 2021."

The State government was accused of failure to immediately release the ₦70 million part payment of the earned academic allowance arrears, and as at the time of holding its Congress the second part payment of ₦72 million in October, 2021 was long overdue. The Union also accused the State government of incomplete payment of the earned academic allowance of 2019/2020 till now.

This signals the beginning of another indefinite strike by ASUU and hopefully the Federal Government can see the seriousness of their demands and begins to put in place measures to pacify the Academic Union.

The strike has not been made official yet, when the Student Union Government (SUG) of every school starts sending notifications of unknown and possibly indefinite resumption date then it'll become official.

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Merry Christmas in advance.