ASUU, sets to embark on indefinite strike

Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU has threatened to commence indefinite strike, unless their demands are met by Federal Government, report claimed. President of the Union Biodun Ogunyemi, said on Friday, that an indefinite strike action may

be taken soon if the union's demands are not met by the Federal Government. The work-to-

rule is influenced by the failure of the Federal Government to implement the 2009 ASUU-FG

agreement, especially, the NEEDS assessment segment of it.

The ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, has this to say: "Since the agreement was signed in 2009, there has been no significant step taken to implement it. It was the desire to speed up the implementation of the demands that the NEEDS assessment was conceived to

identify what each university needs, but the findings of the NEEDS assessment have also

not been implemented by the government that set it up. The union will embark on strike

if our demand is not met." The ASUU president also spoke on the recent

ban on varsities post-UTME exercise stating that it is a big step in the wrong direction. He

said that since the introduction of the Post- UTME tests, there has been considerable

improvement in the quality of students admitted into the universities as evident in

the declining dropout rate and called on all well-meaning Nigerians to intervene to avert

the looming crisis in the university system. Ogunyemi said, "The cancellation of Post-

UTME, to us, portends serious danger for the quality of education in this country. The

argument of the Federal Government on the policy is unacceptable and potentially harmful

to the future of Nigeria's education system.

We call on government to rescind its decision and convene a genuine stakeholders meeting

on the issue before making statement on the policy."

"We note that since the introduction of the post-UTME, the standard of education,

especially, that of the tertiary level has improved significantly. There has also been a

decline in the dropout rate in the country. The system was able to achieve these laudable

objectives because of the contribution of each

university into the standards that are required.

Posted by KEJI