It disclosed this while describing the decision of ASUU to extend the six-month-old strike as unreasonable.

Recall that the academic union extended the lingering strike indefinitely again today, Monday.

Reacting, the Director of Press and Public Relations, in the Federal Ministry of Education, Bem Goong, stressed that the Federal Government had deployed all measures to end the strike.

He said: “If you bring some demands and almost 80% have been attended to, there is no need to drag the strike anymore.

“It is unreasonable for the strike to be lingering since the government has worked towards fulfilling most of the demands.

“As regards the next steps, the government has already inaugurated a committee to harmonize the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, University Transparency and Accountability Solution, UTAS and the University Peculiar Personnel and Payroll System, IPPS.”

ASUU has been on strike since February 2022 over the government’s inability to meet a 2009 agreement.

The union has been at loggerheads with the government over the mode of payment.

Recall that ASUU, who is now in it sixth months strike since February 2022 over the Federal Government’s inability to fulfil its 2009 agreements has refused to call off the strike as a result of the government’s refusal to accept the UTAS software developed by the union for payment of lecturers’ salaries.

Reacting, the Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari’ on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie in a Twitter post said it is unfair for ASUU executives to live off the union’s dues alone, while Lecturer are left to suffer.

She therefore urged the National Assembly to enact laws that would mandate ASUU to pay the salaries of striking members.

In a tweet, Onochie wrote: “ASUU has blackmailed every government in Nigeria. The National Assembly should enact a law that mandates ASUU to pay the salaries of striking members.

“The current situation where ASUU executives alone, live off Union Dues leaving members high and dry, is unfair to their members.”

This is as the Union failed to suspend the ongoing strike action, which has led to a shutdown of academic activities in public universities across the country.

The strike has now entered its day 167 today (Monday) and the Union has vowed not to suspend its strike if all its demands remained unmet.

The PUNCH reported that sources within the NEC confirmed this in a meeting, which ended in the early hours of Monday morning (August 1, 2022).

“We reviewed the progress made so far, and to be honest, no progress was made. We have not heard from the minister at all. Nobody has reached out to us. I can confirm that calling off the strike is not even a matter of discussion,” a source within the NEC who did not want to be named noted this on Monday morning.

But the spokesperson of the ministry of education, Ben Goong, explained that the minister of education, Adamu Adamu, was working round the clock to ensure that the strike is called off.

“We can not speak on what we are doing before we make our submissions to the president. The minister is working round the clock to ensure that he carries out the directive of the president. When we get to the point of calling ASUU, we will,” Goong said.

Recall that the union had issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government on the lingering issues of the industrial concerns.

The union therefore at the expiration of the ultimatum during a meeting at the Federal College of Education (Technical), Asaba, Delta State, on Friday, June 10, took a decision after assessing the level of federal governments response to its requests.

The strike action was disclosed to newsmen in a communique signed by COEASU President, Dr. Smart Olugbeko and General Secretary, Dr. Ahmed Bazza Lawan, respectively.

The statement read in part, “The total strike action suspended by the Union in December 2018 will be resumed immediately for four weeks in the first instance. NEC shall reconvene after the four weeks of strike action to re-assess the level of the Government’s commitment on the issues for an appropriate decision on the way forward thenceforth.

“Every Chapter Congress across the federation should convene on Tuesday, June 14, 2022, to adequately inform the Congress on the commencement of the strike action due to the festering issues and the status of inaction leading to the industrial action.

“Leadership of the Union at all levels (National, Zonal and Chapter) should embark on an emphatic media campaign towards seamless public awareness on the issues leading to the strike action.

“The strike action shall be total and all members of the academic staff in all Colleges of Education (both Federal and State) must withdraw from all statutory duties without exemption.

“All State-owned Colleges already on industrial action to press home local demands should impress on their respective Managements that the local strike shall continue in the unexpected event that their local issues remain unresolved by the end of the nationwide strike.

“Vice Presidents/Zonal Coordinators shall monitor the compliance of Chapters in their respective Zones while defaulting Chapters shall be prevented from enjoying the gains of the struggle and earn themselves other sanctions as NEC shall deem applicable based on normal Union regulations pertaining to Collective Bargaining.”

Meanwhile, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are still on an indefinite strike, which began two months.

Students in various tertiary institutions in the southeast region gave this ultimatum on Thursday while protesting over the lingering strike of ASUU.

The students who said they were tired of staying at home, expressed regret that many, young people like themselves have derailed from the straight path for being idle.

The females among us are now joining prostitution, while the boys have become fraudsters and yahoo yahoo businessmen.

The southeast coordinator of the students union government, zone F, Moses Ibeabuchi who spoke to journalists during the protest that took place in Abakaliki capital of Ebonyi State said, “The Nigerian government is not helping us and they are not doing anything about the strike, instead they are busy conducting primary election.

“We are tired of sitting at home. We are here at home and we can’t go to school, and we can’t do anything, they are busy trying to use us as thugs in this coming election. And we are saying no.

“We are calling on the federal government to do something because we want to go back to school. How can we do a 4 years course for eleven years, and some of the politicians are busy stealing 80billion, they should gather these monies and settle ASUU.

Also, the former coordinator of NANS South-East and South-South zones, Mr. Olisa Nwuruku Alfred, said: “We are registering our grievance over the inability of the federal government to meet the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU. Students have been at home and primary elections are going on and they are preparing to conduct the general election.

“When we are in school, we will not be having a chance to join in the issues of election thuggery, kidnapping and other illegal businesses going on. And students are not happy and we are calling on all authorities including the governors of the Federation to rise up and met with the demands of ASUU” he said.

Similarly, Mr. Okeh John Kingsley, a member of NANS leadership said: “Because of ASUU strike, most of our students especially the female has joined prostitute, not only that, most of them are getting an unwarranted pregnancy while many others are forced into early marriage and they have dumped their education which is their primary purpose.

“Many of the students are the once training themselves and some of them paid house rent and it’s now expiring. Others are because of the lingering ASUU strike are now joining Yahoo Yahoo business, while others are in the street doing illegal businesses that warrant security agencies to be arresting them and we are tired of going to the police station to rescue them.

“We are ready to storm the streets after two weeks. We are giving the federal government two weeks’ ultimatum to call off the strike and if they fail, we will storm every street in the south-east region” he said

Responding, the special assistant to Ebonyi State government on students affairs, Mr Gideon Onwe tasked the students to comport themselves while protesting and not cause discomfort to citizens.

He assured them that the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi is joining forces with other governors in the federation to find a lasting solution to the ASUU strike.

This follows the announcement made by ASUU earlier on Monday, to extend its strike by eight weeks over the failure of the Federal Government to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action within the four-week warning strike.

This was contained in a press release, jointly signed by the President, General Secretary and Public Relations Officer of the UI Students’ Union; Adewole Yinka, Bamidele Taiwo and Olalekan Michael Ajibola, respectively.

The Union declared its unreserved support for the striking academic staff, stating that it was committed to a better education system.

The Union stressed how distressing it was distressing to observe that the warning strike of ASUU had produced no result in one month because the government had shown no sign of acceding to the request of ASUU.

The Union stressed how distressing it was distressing to observe that the warning strike of ASUU had produced no result in one month because the government had shown no sign of acceding to the request of ASUU.

The statement read in part, “the Academic Staff Union of Universities declared a four-week warning strike on February 14, to ensure that the Government meets their demands. The fulfilment of the 2009 agreement, the revitalization of the University System, the payment of earned allowances, and the move from IPPIS to UTAS as a payment method are among the requests.

“However, it is distressing to observe that the warning strike has produced no results in one month, as the FGN has shown no sign of acceding to ASUU’s requests.

“For this reason, the disagreement between the FGN and ASUU has escalated into a major source of concern, with Nigerian students facing the brunt of the consequences.

“As a result, the University of Ibadan Students’ Union, which is committed to a better educational system, declares an unreserved support for ASUU, given its commitment to the development and improvement of tertiary institutions.

“Let us remind the FGN that qualitative education is the leverage for national development and that underfunding the system or ignoring lecturers’ welfare comes with highly devastating academic consequences. That is why we consider the FGN’s indifference to ASUU’s demands to be completely unacceptable.”

The Union further asked that the Federal Government should prioritise the demands of ASUU, stating that it would take stern measures should the government choose to ignore their appeal.

“Hence, we, together with other stakeholders, ask the FGN to give full priority to ASUU and meet its demands as soon as possible, so that classes can resume, as it appears that the sector of the country most affected is the Nigerian student body.

“If the FGN, however, chooses to ignore this appeal, University of Ibadan students would take certain stern but rational measures to demand that the FGN honours its agreement with ASUU,” the statement read further.

The doctors during an emergency meeting in Akure, the state capital lamented that the government has continued to turn deaf ears to their demands.

The aggrieved doctors had last week embarked on a seven-day warning strike to call government’s attention to their plights.

According to the doctors, the industrial action became imperative due to the failure of the state government to address their demands.

The doctors lamented that they were being owed four months salary arrears by the state government amid the harsh economic situation in the country.

They also decried a situation where other health workers under health management board receive salaries regularly.