We won't call off strike, ASUU tells FG

Striking university teachers on
Wednesday insisted that they would
not return to the classrooms until the
Federal Government honoured fully
the 2009 agreement and
Memorandum of Understanding
signed by the two parties.
This came as there were conflicting
reports from the University of Jos
over the institution post-Unified
Tertiary Matriculation Examination.
While the striking teachers insisted
on Wednesday that the exercise
would not hold, the school authorities
said the screening was in progress.
University teachers under the
auspices of the Academic Staff Union
of Universities embarked on a
nationwide industrial action on July 1,
2013.
However, the Ibadan Zonal
Coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Adesola
Nassir, during a briefing at the
University of Lagos, on Wednesday
insisted that the strike would not end
until the Federal Government
respected the signed pact.
The zone has members drawn from
UNILAG, University of Ibadan,
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife,
Osun State; Olabisi Onabanjo
University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State;
Lagos State University, Ojo; Tai
Solarin University of Education, Ijagu,
Ogun State and the Federal University
of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Nassir explained that though the
union met with the government's
representatives, including the
members of the Senate Committee on
Education last Monday, the meeting
ended in a deadlock.
He said, "This is because the Federal
Government is still not being sincere
to address the issues at stake.
"The strike will remain for as long as
it takes the Federal Government to be
faithful to the implementation of the
2009 agreement and its renegotiation
as contained in the Memorandum of
Understanding reached by both
parties in January last year."
He explained that the FG's response
to the action since it started had
shown that it was not ready to
address the challenges facing the
nation's university system.
Meanwhile, the ASUU UNIJOS
chairman, Dr. David Jangkam, has
urged parents not to send their
children to the school for the post-
UTME.
He said, "No parent should send their
children to UNIJOS because the
ongoing strike is total, comprehensive
and indefinite and so no academic
activities in whatever form is
supposed to take place."
However, the university said the
screening was in progress.
Speaking with journalists on
Wednesday, its Registrar, Mr. Jilli
Dandam, called on the public and
participating candidates to disregard
any contrary announcement from the
striking teachers.