The Academic Staff Union of Universities -ASUU, has stated that the parents of the Nigerian students should unite and plead to the federal government to fulfill the promises it had with the Union so that the ongoing six-month strike would finally end.
ASUU has made it known that the federal government is the employer of federal universities’ lecturers and that it has no business with the parents.
The lecturers of public universities had embarked on a strike since 14 February and yesterday, August 14 ushered in the sixth month of the strike as the union’s demands are still to be met by the government. Several meetings and committees have been inaugurated to resolve the crisis but they have not yielded any fruit.
President Muhammadu Buhari had given a two-week ultimatum to the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu to resolve the crisis but that ultimatum has elapsed with no solution in sight. The Union has reiterated that the adoption of a transparent payment platform University Transparency and Accountability Solutions -UTAS, is critical to resolving the current strike action.
When Emmanuel Osodeke was asked if the parents of students in the affected universities had made official pleas to the Union and if anything has been done recently, Osodeke answered with:
“You should ask the government that question. We have done what we should do as a Union. This question should be directed to the government. We have done one and they have not responded, we are not going to force them to respond. We have no relationship with the parents of Nigerian students. The parents are not our employers. So, we have no relationship with them. They should instead beg the government.”
