That is the verdict of the National Executive Council of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as it extended the suspension of work, which started on 14 February – six months and 15 days ago.
ASUU’s NEC meeting was held at its headquarters at the University of Abuja on Monday morning.
Both the Federal Government and the striking union have been insistence on their ground in what has now become one of the longest industrial actions by the academic staff in years.
In embarking on the action, ASUU demands included government’s implementation of the Memorandum of Action on funding for revitalisation of public universities, which was signed in December 2020 .
Other demands are Earned Academic Allowances, renegotiation of the 2009 agreement and the deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) for staff payment, among others
However, the spokesperson of the Federal Ministry of Education, Mr Ben Goong told The PUNCH on Monday that the government had taken all possible steps to end the strike.
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He said: “As regards the next steps, the government has already inaugurated a committee to harmonise the IPPIS, UTAS, and UP3. This will ensure that the government will pay with only one payment platform that will harmonise all the technical peculiarities.
“If you bring some demands and almost 80% have been attended to, there is no need to drag the strike anymore.
“It is unreasonable for the strike to be lingering seeing as the government has worked towards fulfilling most of the demands”.