The leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has scheduled an urgent and crucial meeting for today, September 9 to deliberate on the possible suspension of the 8-month-old strike.
Top on the agenda for the emergency meeting is the Appeal Court ruling ordering the striking union members of the union to resume lectures.
Speaking with journalists on conditions of anonymity on Saturday, a member of the ASUU revealed that the National Executive Council of the union would be reviewing the implications of the Appeal Court judgement.
According to him, “The Appeal Court ruling will be critically reviewed on Sunday and it is after that that we will know the fate of Nigerian students who have been forced to stay at home for almost eight months due to the Federal Government’s negligence.
“Ngige and the Buhari government failed to understand that even if they force the union to resume work, they cannot force the lecturers to teach the Nigerian students whose future have been jeopardized”.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022, and despite various meetings between the union and the federal government on how to resolve the crisis, no agreement could be reached.
Following the impasse, the government dragged ASUU before the National Industrial Court. The court on September 24, ordered the lecturers to return to the classes while negotiations continue.
The defiant ASUU members appealed the judgement. The Appeal Court on its part on Friday ruled against ASUU, upheld the decision of the lower court and ordered the immediate suspension of the strike pending the determination of the substantive suit.
In reaction to the Appeal Court ruling, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke ASUU president said on Friday that the union is yet to receive the ruling but will review and make the next step public when it does.
He said, “We have not received the ruling, when we get it, we will review it with our lawyer and then we can take the next step”.
On his part, the Minister of Labour ordered controllers in the 36 states and the zones to reach out to the universities to ascertain that the vice-chancellors have opened the gates because that is one of the imports of the judgment of the Industrial Court.
Ngige said that his controllers will give him a report on if the university gates have been opened as well as the classroom doors to see if the teachers reported today.
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