The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has declared a total and indefinite strike effective from August 29.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) held on Sunday in Abuja.

The strike follows a six-month shutdown of the nation’s public universities by the union over unmet demands from the federal government. ASUU had embarked on a rollover strike on February 14 because of the government’s failure to implement a 2009 agreement and meet other demands.

READ ALSO: ASUU Has Spent 19 Months on Strike Under Buhari — And It’s the Longest Since 1999

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the union’s president, disclosed the outcome of the NEC meeting in a statement on Monday night, titled ‘ASUU Strikes Are to Save Public Universities’.

The union said in the statement that its NEC agreed that it had experienced a lot of deceit in the last five and half years, as the federal government engaged ASUU in fruitless and unending negotiations without a display of utmost fidelity.

“In 2017, the Federal Government constituted a committee to renegotiate the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement under the chairmanship of Dr Wale Babalakin. After three years of fruitless negotiation, Dr Babalakin was replaced in December 2020 with Professor Emeritus Munzali Jibril. The Renegotiation Committee produced and submitted a draft agreement to the Federal Government in May 2021,” the union said.

“It is sad that, until February 14, 2022, when the ongoing strike commenced, the Federal Government made no significant efforts to either sign the agreement or commence implementation. It was only after the commencement of this strike that the Federal Government reconstituted the committee with Professor Emeritus Nimi Briggs appointed Chairman to lead the Government Team.”

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ASUU said it came to a compromise with the Briggs-led team after intensive bargaining, leading to the submission of the second draft agreement to the federal government in June 2022 for consideration and approval by the two parties within one week.

“However, Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, and later Festus Keyamo, the Minister of State, alleged that the union chased away representatives of the federal government agencies, and thereafter fixed unreasonable and unimplementable salary packages for its members,” the statement read in part.

The union noted that the government offered its members between N30, 000 and N60,000 monthly salaries on a take-it or leave-it basis, among other unacceptable offers.

The union also claimed the government was yet to endorse the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) it demanded to replace the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS). The government has also not implemented the white papers on visitation panels to federal universities, ASUU said.

The union accused the government of not releasing the balance of one tranche of the Universities Revitalization Fund (URF) more than one year after, and the outstanding two tranches of the earned academic allowances (EAA). It also said the government was yet to take action on the amendment of the National Universities Commission (NUC) law to stem the tide of the proliferation of universities, especially by the state governments.

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“NEC was utterly disappointed in agents of the government, especially the Minister of Education, for the deliberate falsehood and misrepresentation of facts aimed at scoring cheap political gains. It is disheartening to imagine that a minister whose responsibility it is to resolve the crisis can overnight turn round to lead in this ignoble enterprise of distorting facts and misleading Nigerians,” the union stated.

“The disdain with which the Minister of Education handled questions about the ongoing ASUU strike at his distasteful press conference on Thursday, August 18, 2022, lends credence to the widespread suspicion that the current government never believed in saving public universities from the misfortunes that have befallen Nigeria’s public primary and secondary schools.

“NEC acknowledges with appreciation past and current efforts by eminent Nigerians and groups to mediate in the lingering crisis. Our union remains open to reasonable engagements as we have always done.

“However, ASUU remains focused on the full implementation of the December 23, 2020 Memorandum of Action for quick restoration of industrial harmony in Nigeria’s public universities.”

READ ALSO: ASUU Has Spent 19 Months on Strike Under Buhari — And It’s the Longest Since 1999

The union also condemned the reopening of some state universities by their vice-chancellors. While lampooning the school heads, ASUU said its decades of struggles had increased sources of funding and training opportunities, including the setting of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), for universities, .

The union also sympathised with students and their parents, saying the strike was in the nation’s best interest.

“NEC noted with pains, its concerns for Nigerians students who are also our wards and foster children and condemned government’s seeming indifference to their plights. Were it within our control, our universities would never have been shut for one day,” the union noted.

“However, ASUU was forced into taking this painful decision to prevent members of the Nigerian ruling class and their foreign collaborators from further destroying whatever is left of our public universities. We are all victims.

“In view of the foregoing, and following extensive deliberations on government’s response to the resolution of February 14, 2022, so far, NEC concluded that the demands of the union had not been satisfactorily addressed. Consequently, NEC resolved to transmute the roll-over strike to a comprehensive, total and indefinite strike action beginning from 12.01am Monday, August 29, 2022.”