In a case brought to the National Industrial Court by the Federal Government to compel ASUU to resume academic work, the national court ordered the striking lecturers to return to class.
It was days after the court order that ASUU called off the industrial action.
President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke stated, “we called off the strike due to the court injunction, appeals from students, parents, and the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Reps. Femi Gbajabiamila, not because issues have been addressed.
Despite the resumption of academic activities by public universities in Nigeria, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that their issues are still unresolved, and they acted on court order to go back into the lecture halls.
The union’s National President revealed that the decision to return is not because their issues are resolved.
“As you have seen from our press release – although they were interventions by the speaker (Femi) and others – the major reason we are resuming is that we are obeying the industrial court’s judgement. The issues have not been fully resolved and no agreements signed,” he stated.
“We are resuming because we are a law-abiding organization and we don’t want to break the law. We are also hoping that the intervention of the speaker as promised by him will resolve this problem within a very short time. So, the issues have not been resolved but we would resume because of that court injunction.”
Osodeke however cautioned the FG that they should not expect an “hungry man” to be at his best.
He therefore urged the the government to pay them their salaries.
The president of the national union criticized one’s force to get them to the class. He mentioned the Minister of Labour who believes the best way is to force them to class.
He reiterated that it was out of benevolence that they have returned to class.
