In the interest of students and the education sector in the country, the House of Representatives has asked the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to comply with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to halt the continuing warning strike.
The House mandated the Committees on Labour, Employment, and Productivity, as well as the Committee on Tertiary Education and Services, to work with the relevant ministries and stakeholders to address the outstanding concerns that led to the current ASUU warning strike.
The resolutions came after Dozie Nwankwo of Anambra State filed a motion headed “urgent need to address the frequent strike activities by ASUU.”
Nwankwo, who sponsored the motion, stated that the previous ASUU strike, which lasted nine months, caused agony to Nigerian students, parents, and the education sector.
He bemoaned the fact that the previous strike disrupted the academic calendar and had a severe impact on teaching personnel, their families, and Nigeria’s public universities’ deteriorating quality.
“Aware of the benefits and advantages of ASUU’s demands on the overall interests of Nigeria’s public institutions and the well-being of the personnel, including funding for the revitalization of public universities and the signing and implementation of the renegotiated” 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement,” he said.
“Disturbed that, just weeks after Nigerians’ most heinous experience, members of ASUU have begun a one-month warning strike with effect from February 14, 2022, despite all previous efforts to resolve the contending issues, including those of the Speaker, House of Representatives, and other stakeholders, including members of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council” (NIREC).
“Further disturbed that the consequences of strike action are embarrassingly becoming too frequent and with consequences that are too damning to the education sector, as a one-month strike is too much disruption to an academic calendar and too much time for an “idle man” to cause havoc, especially in the current university environment, which is infested with cult activities and other social vices.”
“Concerned that, in the current circumstances, claims and counterclaims by both ASUU members and Government representatives are not helping the situation because the picture created is not clear and both Nigerians and foreigners are left to interpret it differently, regrettably tilting towards perceived/or deliberate intention to frustrate the genuine spirit of reconciliation and tertiary education in Nigeria widely viewed as education for the ordinary Nigerian.”
The House directed its Committee on Legislative Compliance to oversee compliance when it passed the measure.