The strike embarked upon by the  Academic Staff Union of Universities, which has paralysed almost all public universities in the country, has entered its 200th day.

Students and parents, who lamented the effects of the industrial action in separate interviews with The PUNCH on Thursday, condemned the failure of the Federal Government and the union to resolve the crisis and reopen the universities.

ASUU had in February declared a month-strike following the failure of the government to meet its demands, including the payment of earned allowances, payment of revitalisation funds to universities, the release of the white paper reports of visitation panels, implementation of the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) instead of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for the payment of workers in the ivory towers and the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 allowance.

Prior to the current strike, the university lecturers had in 2020 embarked on a nine-month industrial action, which they suspended on December 24 of that year.

ASUU President Misleading Public University Teachers

The statement issued by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on August 28, declaring a total and indefinite strike, clearly indicates that the union is as deceitful as the Buhari government it is fighting. After inflicting so much pain on students in Nigeria’s public universities and their parents, the union turns around to say it is pained by its decision to declare an indefinite strike. A part of that provocative statement reads: “NEC noted with pains, its concerns for Nigerian 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.”

If students are indeed at the centre of ASUU’s so-called struggle, then, lecturers won’t be on strike at all, not to talk of shutting public universities for almost seven months. I am not sorry to say that the disjointed President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke is misleading the teachers. This man is a negative force. Whatever the university lecturers are fighting for (no matter how good) amounts to nonsense, if the interest of students is not paramount. This is what these public university teachers have failed to recognise. Lecturers are permanently on strike, leaving the students they are engaged to teach in tatters and quandary. They should be worried about the quality of their products. A four-year course is turned into six years by unending strikes. Some students will never return after the strike. So, persisting with this current strike is unjustifiable.

Peter Obi speaks on prolonged ASUU strike, proffers solution

The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, has described the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as “unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable.

He said that the strike has lingered for far too long and that the Nigerian government must immediately engage in “collaborative negotiations” with the aggrieved lecturers of public universities.

Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, South-east Nigeria, spoke in a tweet on his verified Twitter handle on Wednesday.

He lamented the consequences of the protracted industrial action which is now in its seventh month, and already tagged indefinite by the striking lecturers’ union.

He said; “Our position is that the ASUU strike has lingered for far too long. It is unconscionable, worrisome and unacceptable that FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) would allow such an industrial action to become almost intractable to the detriment of our students.

“It’s time for FGN to engage in collaborative negotiations with ASUU, and in good faith.”