7 highlights of ASUU strike 240 days after universities’ shutdown

Since February, Nigerian students have been forced to pause their academic pursuits for eight straight months.

It is safe to say that the 2022 episode of the face-off between the Federal Government and the ASUU is one of the worst and most dramatic ASUU strikes in Nigeria’s history.

Nigerian students and university communities across the country are used to periodic paralysis in the nation’s ivory towers, but no one envisaged that what started as a warning strike would linger for eight months.

However, in their many futile attempts to resolve the protracted crisis, ASUU and the government put up controversial shows, while students who are at the mercy of the two elephants keep hoping that something positive would come out of their negotiation meetings.

Here are seven highlights of the lecturers’ industrial action that has paralysed academic activities for eight months.

Strike extended by eight weeks

On Monday, February 14, 2022, ASUU declared one month strike to “warn the Federal Government to do the needful.”

The union believed the one-month warning strike would be enough for the government to respond to its demands and avoid a total paralysis of academic activities in the nation’s universities, but the striking lecturers got it all wrong.

In March, the union decided to extend the strike by eight weeks with the hope that the government would address all the issues “in concrete terms”.

Again, ASUU was wrong and after the expiration of the eight weeks ultimatum, everything went south as negotiations failed again and again.

ASUU President describes state schools as quacks

In August, ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke got many Nigerians talking about his perceived disrespect for universities owned by state governments.

As ASUU and the government failed to reach a concrete agreement that prolonged the strike, some state universities defied ASUU and opened their schools for students to resume academic activities.

This obviously didn't go down well with Osodeke and while responding to a question about state-owned schools that decided to pull out of the strike, the ASUU president asked his interviewer to disregard 'quacks' and talk about proper schools like UNILAG, ABU, and other federal universities.

This sparked reactions from Nigerians as many criticised the union's president for his 'denigrating and reckless remark' about state-owned universities.

FG drags ASUU to court

When the strike entered its seventh month, the FG probably felt calling a meeting and sitting at the negotiation table won’t solve the crisis as ASUU reportedly rejected offers from the government saying they were inadequate.

In September, the FG dragged ASUU before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) asking the court to order lecturers to return to classrooms.

The government also asked the court to inquire into the legality or otherwise of the prolonged strike by ASUU and its members.

On Wednesday, September 21, the trial judge, Polycarp Hamman, restrained the lecturers from continuing with the strike pending the determination of the suit filed against them by the Federal Government.

But the union was not pleased by the ruling as it headed for the Appellate Court to appeal the ruling.

FG’s confusing orders to Vice Chancellors

Despite the court order, university gates remain shut across the country. However, in a bid to show and exercise its power, the Federal Government through the National Universities Commission ordered Vice Chancellors to reopen schools.

Hours after the show of power, the FG through the same commission withdrew the order.

Till today, the government has not explained why it withdrew the order.

Students' protests

The strike has gone on for too long to the point that students, whose time has been irretrievably decided to demonstrate their grievances.

In September, the protesting students blocked the busy Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and all access roads to the Murtala International Airport in Lagos to warn ASUU and the government to get their act together.

The protests affected flight operations as airlines were forced to reschedule flights.

Approval of another academic union

In a bid to allegedly clip ASUU’s wings, the FG recognised the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA), a breakaway faction of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

Earlier in October, the government presented a certificate of registration to CONUA led by Dr Niyi Sunmonu, a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife.

But the recognition of the ASUU faction by the FG seems ineffective as ASUU remains the main academic body at the negotiation table.

ASUU finally sees light at the end of the tunnel

Following the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila on the strike, ASUU President hinted that the strike would be called off soon.

Osodeke while praising Gbajabiamila on Monday, October 10, 2022, for his intervention in the lingering crisis said, “For the first time, we have seen light at the end of the tunnel.”

The Speaker also assured Nigerian students that the strike would be suspended in a matter of days.

Even though universities remain shuttered days after ASUU offered a glimpse of hope, there are indications that the strike would be called off before the end of October.