Reps urge FG to honour agreement with ASUU

The House of Representatives has urged the Federal Government to honour its agreement with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), to end the union’s ongoing one-month warning strike.

The legislators made the call in a resolution which followed the adoption of a motion by Rep. Dozie Nwankwo, (APGA-Anambra) on the floor of the house on Tuesday in Abuja.

The house urged the Ministry of Labour and Employment as well as ASUU to adhere to the clauses and provisions of their previous Memorandum of Understanding and the Memorandum of Action.

According to the lawmakers, is in the interest of Nigerian students and the education sector for the warning strike to end.

The house also mandated its Committees on Labour, Employment and Productivity as well as Tertiary Education and Services to interface with the Ministries of Labour and Employment on the matter.

It also included the Ministry of Education, Civil Society Organisations, Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) and ASUU in those to address the outstanding issues that precipitated the current warning strike by the union.

The lawmakers also mandated its Committee on Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance.

In the motion, Nwankwo, had said that there was the need to address the frequent strike actions by ASUU.

He stressed that ASUU’s strike had in the past caused corporate pain to students and parents alike, adding that it had disrupted the academic calendar and impacted negatively on the teaching staff.

Nwankwo also decried the depreciating academic standards of Nigeria’s public universities as a result of incessant strikes by ASUU.

According to him, Nigeria is losing revenue through Nigerian students who school abroad and the standards of Nigerian universities can be raised to those of the best universities in Africa and the world.

Our correspondent recalls that ASUU on Feb. 14, embarked on a warning strike for ”breach of agreement between the union and the federal government.”