Nigeria's Academic Union Extends Strike by Two Months

Nigeria's Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has extended its ongoing industrial action by another eight weeks, to allow the government more time to meet all its demands to avoid future strikes. The union is accusing the Nigerian government of insensitivity, and of peddling lies. 

The union said the extension of the strike The union had embarked on a one-month warning strike on February 14, 2022 over the failure of the government to implement agreements entered with the union.

ASUU also issued a statement on the controversy surrounding the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) that its technical team developed to replace the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) which is currently being used to pay its members' salaries. The union feels that the IPPIS system has been imposed on universities by the government.

The two most important demands that could end the strike, are the renegotiation of the 2009 federal government-ASUU agreement on the working conditions of Nigerian academics and the deployment of UTAS to replace the PPPIS system.

Other demands include the payment of earned academic allowances; a revitalisation fund for universities; fixing of discrepancies in the payment of salaries; funding of state universities, and the release of white papers on visitation panels sent to universities.

Thousands of students have been affected by the ongoing strike.