Another round of strike by academic staff in the nation’s public universities is looming as the national leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has served a strike notice on the federal government

The decision to give the government the 21-day notice was arrived at during the National Executive Committee, NEC, meeting of the union held at the University of Ibadan, Oyo State on Monday.

A member of NEC told our correspondent in confidence that the step was due to the non-challance of the government to the demands of the union and the flagrant breach of previous agreements entered with the government.

“Yes, the NEC meeting came to a conclusion on the matter and I left the meeting early this morning. We have endured enough and there is need to let the government know our feelings. As a law abiding union, we are following due process and we have mandated the leadership to follow that path, ” the source said.

It was learned that the notice would have been served earlier, but that at the NEC meeting that preceded the Ibadan meeting, some members prevailed on their colleagues to give the government more time.

The notice of strike is expected to be served on the Education and Labour Ministries

“The notice is not an ultimatum, but could be followed by a full blown industrial action if no favourable response is got from the side of the government, ” the source added.

It was gathered that the notice is to tie loose ends and make a formal declaration of strike be in line with labour laws.

The union’s decision came amid ongoing face-off over the non-implementation of agreements with the federal government.

Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, had on June 26 met with ASUU leaders to address the issues and prevent the planned strike.

National President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said after the meeting with the minister that earlier agreements were yet to be fulfilled.

Major issues include the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements, which have been pending for over six years, the accumulation of earned academic allowances, the lack of progress on the revitalisation fund, which was agreed upon in the Needs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion annually for five years.

Only one tranche has been paid since and that was in 2013.

Members of the union are still being owed four months salaries seized by the government following the eight-month strike of 2022.