ASUU to FG: We are still on strike

Striking university teachers on Wednesday insisted that they would not return to the classrooms until the Federal Government fully honoured  the 2009 agreement and Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two parties.

University teachers under the auspices of the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a nationwide industrial action on July 1, 2013.

However, the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Adesola Nassir, during a briefing at the University of Lagos, on Wednesday insisted that the strike would not end until the Federal Government respected the signed pact.

The zone has members drawn from UNILAG, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State; Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State; Lagos State University, Ojo; Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijagu, Ogun State and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Nassir explained that though the union met with the government's representatives, including the members of the Senate Committee on Education last Monday, the meeting ended in a deadlock.

He said, 'This is because the Federal Government is still not being sincere to address the issues at stake.

'The strike will remain for as long as it takes the Federal Government to be faithful to the implementation of the 2009 agreement and its renegotiation as contained in the Memorandum of Understanding reached by both parties in January last year.'

He explained that the FG's response to the action since it started had shown that it was not ready to address the challenges facing the nation's university system.

Meanwhile, the ASUU UNIJOS chairman, Dr. David Jangkam, has urged parents not to send their children to the school for the post-UTME.

He said, 'No parent should send their children to UNIJOS because  the  ongoing strike is total, comprehensive and indefinite and so no academic activities in whatever form is supposed to take place.'

However, the university said the screening was in progress.

Speaking with journalists on Wednesday, its Registrar, Mr. Jilli Dandam, called on the public and participating candidates to disregard any contrary announcement from the striking teachers.