Strike: Obey Court Ruling, NANS Urges ASUU

The National Association of Nigerian Students has called on the Academic Staff Union of Universities to obey the court order that ruled that the union should return to class while negotiations with the Federal Government continues.

Recall that ASUU has been on strike for the past 7 months and all efforts to end the strike have failed as the union insists that FG must implement all the agreement they had.

The association, has, however, appealed the industrial court judgment.

In his reaction, the president of NANS, Comrade Usman Barambu, said ASUU is not transparent in its negotiation with the government has it has locked the students out of the proceedings.

He insisted that members of the union could continue the appeal while also doing it duty to impact knowledge on students in classrooms.

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He said, “They have to call-off. They didn’t say they are not calling off. They said they have to appeal, hence nothing stops them from going back to class when the appeal process is on.

“If they appeal and the Appeal Court upholds the industrial court order, they will go back to class. If the court grants the appeal, the federal government has the opportunity of appealing the case. “

Accusing ASUU of a hidden agenda, the student union president said he had proposed to both ASUU and the federal government to be part of their negotiation and that while the government agreed, ASUU declined, fuelling suspicion that they are hiding something.

He said, “But the problem is the ASUU. Why have they refused to call-off? I think they are hiding something. Why did they refuse that I should be part of the observers in their negotiation so we can clearly understand the stage they are right now?

“The federal government under the ministry of labour approved that we are part of the negotiation, at least to observe, but ASUU declined, saying they can’t sit with their children and that it’s not in their tradition. Obviously, there is something they are hiding. As a leader of the Nigerian students, I said I want to observe, but the ASUU president declined. We will hold a press conference on this.”