Public university lecturers on Sunday insisted that they would not return to the classrooms on Monday (today).
They also accused the Federal Government of insincerity in its bid to resolve its dispute with the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
The President of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, confirmed this on Sunday via a Short Message Service to an enquiry by The PUNCH.
The Federal Government had through the Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof. Julius Okojie, deferred its earlier ultimatum to the lecturers to resume work on Monday (today) or risk being sacked. The shift was to enable them to participate in the burial of Prof. Festus Iyayi, a former president of ASUU on Saturday.
Before now, the Supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, had advised the striking lecturers to return to work on or before December 4 or face dismissal.
But ASUU had in a news bulletin to its chapters after its meeting in Ekpoma, Edo State on Sunday, said the Federal Government had not met its conditions for suspending the over five months’ strike.
When asked by one of our correspondents if the members of the union would go back to work today and if they had confirmed the N200bn the Federal Government claimed to have deposited in a special account at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Fagge simply replied, “No to both questions.”
ASUU had in the bulletin insisted that the government threat to sack its members would not break the union’s resolve to pursue its action to a logical conclusion.
