Lawyers express divergent views over ASUU’s conditional suspension of strike

By Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

Mixed reactions are already trailing the announcement by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that its eight-month-old strike has been suspended conditionally.

Speaking exclusively with the Daily Times, Abuja based lawyer and public analyst, Mr Victor Oziegbe said, suspending the strike without announcing a definite resumption date is a clear case of both parties trying to outsmart each other.

Explaining what conditional suspension of the strike means, Oziegbe said; “To suspend means to put on hold until certain conditions are met. It means that we are not going to the class room until you meet certain conditions. Until all the party’s are on the same page, that is when we will go to the calssroom”.

While stressing that ASUU is trying to tread with caution following order by the court of Appeal that they should call off the strike, Oziegbe said, it was a smart move to obey and observe legal parameters.

“Let them announce date for resumption. Calling off strike without announcing date for resumption is motion without movement. They are just trying to be smart. You cannot be negotiating with a government that is about leaving without serious commitment.

“Let class commence. Some of the lecturers have even gone to their villages and they have not been paid. How do you expect them to fuel their vehicles and travel back? So all these issues need to be addressed before the strike will be fully called off”, Oziegbe added.

On his part, Mr Paul Ashiekaa said,
the orders and decisions of the Courts must be obeyed by all parties pending when a final decision over the issues is handed down.

He said, “The fundamental right of ASUU as a labour union to embark on strikes has not been eroded or stripped off completely.

The orders and decisions of the Courts must be obeyed by all parties pending when a final decision over the issues is handed down.

“For now, the substantive case is still pending before the National Industrial Court and ASUU has only been directed to comply with the Order of the said Court pending the determination of that substantive case until and except any contrary order is made by an appellate court, in this case the Court of Appeal where a valid appeal is entered, heard and upheld”.

Recall that ASUU suspended its eight-month-old industrial action conditionally on Friday.

The union decided to suspend the strike during a meeting of its leadership that started on Thursday night and lasted into the early hours of Friday.

The meeting was called by the union to determine its next line of action after its state branches met over the Court of Appeal ruling last week. ASUU is expected to make a formal announcement about the suspended strike this morning.

Prior to the meeting, the Court of Appeal had ordered ASUU to suspend the strike before its appeal of the ruling ordering lecturers to resume work can be heard.

Members of the union’s National Executive Committee, which comprises the chairmen of the state chapters and members of the national executive, attended the meeting at the ASUU National Secretariat in Abuja.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 this year.

When the lecturers began the strike – initially a four-week industrial action – ASUU said it was pushing for better funding of universities as well as improved welfare for its members based on several deals reached with the government.

ASUU was particularly asking for the release of the revitalisation funds for schools, the payment of earned academic allowances to members, and the release of whitepapers from the reports of the presidential visitation panels.

It also demanded the usage of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as a payment platform for university workers as against the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

Following the Federal Government and ASUU’s inability to reach a deal, the union kept extending the industrial action before making it indefinite in August.

In the wake of the tussle, the Federal Government registered two factional unions – the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA).

But ASUU had said it was not bothered about the government’s move, describing it as “illegal”.