Reterdeen Staff
People say “ASUU strike pass thunder”. Well, this statement is understandable as the union has embarked on strikes almost every year since the democratic government took over. The latest was called off yesterday.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria, ASUU, has officially put an end to an industrial action it started 3 months ago.
The Union announced the suspension of the strike late thursday night and directed university lecturers to resume duties from Monday.
The strike action which started in November 2018 was as a result of the government’s failure to meet agreements signed with the body after a previous strike action in 2013.
Even though this strike lasted for three months, it is not the longest industrial action duration ASUU has embarked on since we moved to a democratic system of government in 1999. We have seen ASUU strikes that have lasted way longer than three months. So without much further ado, here is a list of the 8 longest ASUU strikes since 1999:
- 2003
ASUU went on strike in 2003 to protest the non-implementation of previously agreed terms by the federal government of the country. This is the longest strike as it lasted for a full six month period.
- 2010
Another almost six-month academic delay was experienced by students in government owned schools in 2010. This was due to an industrial action taken by ASUU from July 2010 to January 2011.
- 2013
ASUU went on strike in 2013 for reasons including increased retirement age and increased budgetary allocations among others. The strike lasted from July to December of the year, keeping students at home for over 5 months.
- 1999
Just after the military handed over to a democratic government in 1999, the Academic Staff Union of Universities embarked on a strike. The strike lasted for 5 months.
- 2009
This time it was a four month strike which resulted in the ASUU/FG agreement. This agreement later led to more periods of industrial action to be taken by ASUU in subsequent years.
- 2001
ASUU went on strike to protest the sack of 49 lecturers in the University of Ilorin in 2001. The strike lasted for a period of three months.
- 2007
Nigerian students experienced another 3 month disruption of their academic activities when ASUU went on a follow up strike in 2007.
- 2018
The latest in ASUU’s long list of industrial action started in November last year and was called off last night, lasting for a period of 3 months and 2 days.
We hope the union will not find any further reasons to go on industrial actions in future. And we are happy that schools have finally resumed so students can go back to learning.
When a government does not value education or went ahead to build private universities where only few students can afford the tuition. When universities are ill equipped and the lecturers work on their stomach with incommesurate pay. When governments intention is to break the backbone of ASUU not knowing thry are breaking the backbone of their future generation. When a government is so unreliable and can never be taken on their word. Definitely the lecturers who are feeling the heat in the unconducive lecture rooms will go on strike. Let the leaders be true to their word for a change let them be reliable. Let lecturers who teach the permanent secretaries, lawyers, doctors be treated as important if not more important than their students who retire and take home monies, cars, houses and stewards as soon as they come out of service while lectures will stay for years without getting their retirement benefits. When ASUU goes on strike ask the government about the problem
I was a PG student at U.I. in 2010 and I never experienced any strike then. Get your facts right please.
Hello Fawole Ibrahim, thanks for your comment.
Actually, the Academic Staff Union of Universities, including the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and National Association of Academic Technologists embarked on an over 5-month strike in 2010 affecting South Eastern Universities and some universities in the South West. The fact that U.I didn’t participate in that strike action does not mean that it didn’t happen. Over 15 government owned tertiary institutions nationwide had their academic activities paralysed during the period of the strike.
Thanks