"WE WON'T CALL OFF STRIKE" - ASUU TELLS FG

For those students who miht be hoping there is an end just around the corner to the lingering ASUU strike, there hopes might just be delayed a little while longer.
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.