The Academic Staff Union of Universities' (ASUU) strike will go on as planned because the union's National Executive Council, or NEC, did not discuss the possibility of postponing the strike at its meeting, which ended early on Monday in Abuja.
Vanguard's investigations revealed that the union's national leadership limited its briefing to discussing their interactions with and submissions to the Prof. Nimi Briggs Committee, which was established by the federal government to renegotiate the 2009 Agreement with the union.
According to a source, the NLC's intervention in the situation and the subsequent statewide solidarity marches staged by the Congress and its affiliates last week were also discussed by the leadership at the meeting.
"There was no need for the NEC to consider suspending the strike because there is no indication of any serious commitment on the part of the government. Could anyone confirm that this is what the government is providing? They were the ones who established the Briggs Committee, which made recommendations before the government ignored it.
"The administration isn't being sincere. Let's assume that we are asking for too much, which isn't even the case, and that the government will make its offers, after which we can decide whether or not to accept them. As they did with public elementary and secondary schools, we have been saying that they want to destroy the university system as well.
How many Nigerians today are proud to enroll their kids in the same public elementary and secondary institutions that we all attended back then? The union's national leadership will shortly announce our choices, the source stated.
Remember that the union has been on strike since February 14 of this year, following which other unions representing non-teaching personnel started their own strikes.
Across the states and in Abuja, protests in support of the union's demands for an immediate reopening of the universities were organized on last Tuesday and Wednesday.
