ASUU: Nigerian Students Kick Against Court Judgement, Give Reason

The National Association of Nigerian Students has kicked against the the court judgement that ordered the Academic Staff Union of Universities to call of its 7 month strike, The PUNCH reports.

Recall that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on Wednesday ordered the ASUU to call off its ongoing nationwide strike.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 to press home the demands for improved funding for universities, a review of salaries for lecturers, among other issues.

Several meetings between ASUU and the Federal Government had ended in a deadlock.

But reacting to the ruling in a statement, NANS National Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, said the judgement betrays equity.

The student union spokesperson explained that rather than direct ASUU to return to classroom, the court should have ordered the Federal Government to sort the striking lecturers.

According to the students union, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis.

The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to a news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call of its 7 month strike. As an association, we feel disturbed to read the news of the judgment because we believe that it betrays equity.

“Ordinarily, the Federal Government is not meant to have dragged ASUU to court. But, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle crisis. And, we want to state categorically that the court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres.

“And, as it stands today, with that court judgment, we maintain that the court has not resolved the problem and we reject the judgment in strong terms. The court could have said that the Federal Government should go and pay rather than say that lecturers who are on strike should go back to classrooms. We were expecting the court to have understood that lecturers are on contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render.

“The only remedy to this strike action is for the Federal Government to accede to the demands of ASUU which the government willingly entered into with them and properly fund education.”