Monday marked the six-month extension of the Academic Staff Union of Universities’ (ASUU) strike, which will continue until its demands are met by the Federal Government.

After a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the striking university lecturers at the University of Abuja, a union member who asked to remain anonymous confirmed the development.

He stated that the union prolonged the strike after analyzing progress reports on continuing negotiations with the Federal Government in the previous four weeks when ASUU rolled over the strike.

The Federal Government, according to last week’s statement from Minister of Education Adamu Adamu, has satisfied the majority of the union’s requests, including the release of N50 billion for the payment of earned allowances for academic and non-academic workers in universities.

The strike was started by ASUU on February 14, 2022. The following day, it announced a four-week warning strike. The academics, however, prolonged it by eight weeks after a month, claiming that the government needed more time to consider their requests.

Due to the failure of the Federal Government and lecturers to negotiate an agreement, the union on May 9, prolonged the strike by an additional 12 weeks.

Among other things, university teachers want better welfare, the revitalization of public universities, and academic freedom. Meetings between officials of the administration and the ASUU have frequently come to an impasse. A meeting of this kind with the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee took place at the National University Commission (NUC) in Abuja around two weeks ago.

However, a top ASUU member stated that a fresh agreement had not been reached by the Briggs Renegotiation Committee. According to the unnamed source, the committee begged the union to call off the strike and promised to address their issues in the budget for the following year.

Since the industrial dispute, a number of organizations and people have taken an interest. Femi Falana, a human rights attorney, is the most recent, asking the Federal Government to sign the renegotiated agreement with the striking workers.

“Instead of engaging in the diversionary tactics of blackmailing ASUU the Federal Government should ensure that the strike is called off by signing the Renegotiated Agreement with ASUU without any further delay,” Falana said in a statement he issued on Sunday.

“While calling on both sides to resume the negotiations in the interest of the country the Federal Government should be prevailed upon to end the prolonged industrial action.”