Varsity union to commence strike over closure of schools
The Academic Staff Union of Universities says it
will, next Monday, embark on a three-day solidarity strike to protest
the continued closure of five state universities in eastern Nigeria.
The chairman of the Anambra State University chapter of ASUU, Jaja
Nwanegbo told the News Agency of Nigeria that the association’s
decision to embark on a three-day solidarity strike was taken at the
union’s National Executive Council meeting held last month in
Cross-River State.
He said that the strike was necessary to create
public awareness on the failure of some state governments to fully
implement the November 2009 agreement on improved condition of service.
According to him, the solidarity strike is to register their
displeasure with the Federal Government’s refusal to intervene in the
crisis. The union chairman said that the eastern region has suffered so
much that it should not be experiencing closure of state universities
at this point in history. “A region that experienced three years of
political crisis between 1967 and 1970, and where many of her youth
take to trading instead of education, should have universities running
regularly more than others in the country”, he said.
Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu and Abia state
universities have remained closed for about 11 weeks following the
strike embarked upon by their academic staff over improved funding for
the institutions.
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