By Idowu Bankole

ASUU’s strike has been a recurrence decimal in the Academic calendar of Nigerian students.

The strike actions, mostly blamed on the government’s non-implementation of agreement with the academic body, have disrupted the academic pursuits of most Nigerian students with an estimated 75 per cent graduating later than scheduled.

This is, according to an academic (name withheld), partly responsible for the decaying academic system in the country and why university abroad is becoming very attractive.

…Below is a Timeline of the ASUU Strike in Nigeria

2013:  Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, declared a strike on December 17, 2013, which lasted 6 months over non-implementation of 2009 agreement between the union and the Federal Government.

It was eventually called off after the federal government agreed to some demands of the Academic body.

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• Breaking: ASUU to go on one-month warning strike

2014: The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, embarked on a one-week warning strike over failure by the Federal Government to implement the 2009 Agreement and 2013 MoU.

According to ASUU, “Many aspects of the 2013 MoU and the 2009 agreement with the Federal Government have either been unimplemented or despairingly handled.

“The agreements are Payments of staff entitlements since December 2015, funding of universities for revitalisation, pension, TSA and university autonomy and renegotiation of 2009 Agreement.

2017:  The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU declared another strike action, this time it lasted 36 days. ASUU however suspended its strike after a final four-hour meeting with the Federal Government delegation, which ended around 9 pm in Abuja on Monday.

“Now on the conditional suspension of the strike; after an elaborate and extensive consultation process, the National Executive Council of ASUU has agreed to conditionally suspend the ongoing action, taking into cognizance that the latest proposal by the government to address the contentious issues in the strike has a deadline of the end of October 2017.”

2019: The Academic Staff Union of Universities said late on Wednesday that its members should not be held responsible if there is any disruption in the university system.

This, the union said, was because the Federal Government had not shown commitment in carrying out the 2019 Memorandum of Action.

“Reaching agreement with the Federal Government has often been a frustrating journey for our union. It is often marked with protests, strikes and requires a conscious and focused engagement. The 2001 agreement, which gave birth to the 2009 agreement, was not an exemption. The exception here is the personality leading the government negotiation team.”

2021: ASUU on Monday, November 17th, 2021, announced its plan to embark on another strike in three weeks if the federal government continued to renege on the 2020 agreement with it.

The union had accused the federal government of failing to implement the agreement after it called off its nine-month-old strike in December 2020.

Vanguard News Nigeria