Strike Update: FG Reacts To ASUU NEC Meeting

THE Federal Ministry of Education has maintained it will not enter into agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities under duress, stressing it is unnecessary.

The ministry, in his reaction, called on ASUU to call off ongoing strike “so that we will not have gunpoint negotiations and make promises that we will not be able to fulfil.”

The ministry’s spokesman, Ben Goong, made this known in an interview with The PUNCH on Sunday.

It was also gathered that the National Executive Council of the union, which is currently meeting at the University of Abuja, would announce the final decision on whether to proceed with an indefinite strike or suspend the current industrial action today (Monday).

The National President, ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed that the NEC was indeed meeting, but refused to make further comments.

“The NEC is meeting and details will be communicated,” the ASUU president simply said.

However, a high ranking source in the NEC told our correspondent that the union would have no choice but to go on full blown strike as the government had failed to do anything tangible to meet its demands.

“The government has not done any tangible thing since the announcement of the warning strike. As much as we are not happy about going on strike, I am afraid to say that we have no choice this time. However, the final decision lies with the NEC,” the source said