Nigerian universities on indefinite strike for proper funding

LAGOS, Aug. 16– Academic activities in Nigerian universities
are grounded as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has
commenced an indefinite nationwide strike for more financial support.

Strikers are pressing for the implementation of an agreement signed
between the ASUU and the Nigerian federal government in 2009. ASUU
President Biodun Ogunyemi announced the strike on Monday in Abuja,
Nigeria’s capital city, where the ASUU concluded an emergency national
executive council meeting. “There shall be no teaching, no examination and
no attendance of statutory meetings of any kind in any of our branches till
government meets the union’s demands,” he told reporters. President
Muhammadu Buhari had in January approved a 16-man committee, headed by Wale
Babalakin, to renegotiate the 2009 Federal Government agreement with the
staff unions in the federal universities, polytechnics and colleges of
education.The committee was constituted with a view to engendering
sustainable peace and industrial harmony in tertiary institutions.The ASUU
president said the Wale Babalakin-led committee set up by the government
lacked the powers to resolve the issue as there were unimplemented items in
the 2009 agreement.- XINHUA