‘ASUU Won’t Join NASU Strike’

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) chapter of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it will not join members of Non-Academic Staff Union (NASU) in their ongoing nationwide strike. ASUU said there was no reason to join the action, urging NASU members to take up their struggle alone.

The UNILAG ASUU Chairman, Comrade Adelaja Odukoya, in an interview with CAMPUSLIFE, said the lecturers’ union “won’t be stampeded to join a strike we did not declare”.

He said: “We would never be made to declare a strike by proxy. ASUU is not on strike and based on that, we have a duty and a responsibility to students and to the country to do our work because we are not on strike. To that extent, we are not suspending our work.”

It would be recalled that last year, ASUU and two other unions – NASU and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) – embarked on joint strike. The Federal Government was able to pull off a concession that was described as not-so-successful to the demands of the three unions.

However, ASUU and NAAT resumed work after the said the concession was made. But, NASU declared indefinite strike when it was not satisfied with the concession.

Odukoya noted that the difference in the rates of finances given to different universities chapters made NASU to declare the ongoing strike.

He said: “As a matter of fact, we sympathise with NASU, particularly the UNILAG chapter, because I don’t understand how they end up getting N23 million when its counterpart at the University of Ibadan got about N105 million and that of the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA) got over N300 million.

“We don’t know the Mathematics or the logic used that made the UNILAG NASU to be allocated paltry N23 million. To that, we sympathise with them, but that is not to say that ASUU would join the strike. We are not members of their union. We are academic intellectuals and we have a responsibility to the society and our students when we are not on strike.”

During a NASU protest, its Chairman, Comrade Ajibade Kehinde, said the demonstration was to show the usefulness of the members of the union in the university, re-affirming that there is no backing down on the strike.

Meanwhile, the situation at the UNILAG main campus has become unbearable for students as electricity and water supply have been disrupted by the NASU members.

NASU disrupted electricity following a student’s claim on a national television that the strike did not make “meaningful effect” on the campus.

The student’s claim sparked a protest by NASU members, who disrupted academic activities and cut supplies of essential services. Activities on the campus have been crippled due to lack of power supply. Water shortage in the hostels has forced students to struggle to get water for cooking and bath.

CAMPUSLIFE gathered that a monitoring team from NASU’s national secretariat was in UNILAG to ensure maximum compliance of its members to the strike.

Several lectures last Wednesday were held without electricity. Some lecturers stayed away from their offices because of the power outage. Businesses slowed down across the campus because traders and shops owners were not allowed to use  power generating set on the campus.

The UNILAG FM has had its activities disrupted since the start of the NASU strike. Students and visitors are not allowed into the school Administrative Building by the school security personnel.

The university convocation takes place next week. There have been speculations that NASU members may prevent the event from holding in order to make the management feel the impact of their strike.