Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has revealed that the union only called of its 8-month strike in obeying an order by the Appeal Court.
Osodeke states this on Sunday while speaking on Channels Television.
Recall that ASUU had been on strike since February 14 over its demand for improved funding for universities, and a review of salaries for lecturers, among other issues.
But the Court of Appeal had on October 7th, ordered the union to call off its strike.
On Friday, the national executive council (NEC) of ASUU announced a suspension of the industrial action.
Osodeke said the union hopes that the federal government will do the needful now that the strike has been suspended.
“The major reason we are resuming is that we are obeying the court order.
“The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreement has been signed. So, we are resuming because we are a law-abiding body and we don’t want to break the law.
“We are also hoping that the intervention of the speaker, as promised by him, will resolve these problems in a very short time.”
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When asked if this means the lecturers are not happy to be resuming, Osodeke said:
“Definitely. In trade dispute, especially one involving university academics, the best option is negotiation and then you end it within a very short time.
“But the minister of labour believes that the best way is to force them to class. It’s so sad, but because of the interest of the Nigerian students, their parents, and the speaker, our members will teach.
“Any country that plays with education creates room for insecurity.
“We want the next administration to follow the trend of neighbouring countries and allocate not less than 16 percent of the budget to education. When this is done, these problems will be sorted out. Our children will go to school effortlessly.”
