The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said schools cannot be reopened now until all the demands by the uniont that led to the March 23rd 2020 nationwide strike are addressed.
In a statement signed by the zonal coordinator of Ibadan zone, Professor Ade Adejumo, the union said that until the government provides facilities that would strictly make the students obey Covid-19 safety protocols to avert tragedy in schools, lecturers will not return to work.
According to him “our strike action which was predicated on governments’ readiness to honour its MOA with us continues, even if the universities are opened today. It is our responsibility to call government attention to its duties to the nation and its citizens; this we have done and there is no going back”.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the government has refused to take upon its own responsibility to use the period of the Covid-19 pandemic to address their demands.
“One would have thought that the government would use the opportunity of the lockdown to address the issues in contention with ASUU.
“Surprisingly, the government was carrying on as if the problems no longer exist and as we speak, the government has not called ASUU for discussion on the demands.
“We want to say that, if the federal government announce the school’s resumption today, without attending to our demands, our union will not resume duties”
Adejumo added that “Nigerians should note that IPPIS, though not part of our initial charter of demands, has been elevated to the status of the main issue by the government.
“We need to let the whole world know that IPPIS design of the federal government is exclusive to us alone in Nigeria, there is nowhere in the world where it exists. Even the particular country that we copy don’t operate it”
“Even at that, the union has met the government’s challenge for ASUU to develop an alternative platform that will take care of the peculiarities of the university system.
“To this end, we have developed and presented UTAS well ahead of the 18 months’ period that we promised while still addressing the problem of corruption as being touted by the government and this platform which is more comprehensive and robust that IPPIS was developed by our teams of experts completely using our resources,” he noted.