The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has explained why it had not declared a nationwide strike yet after several months of threat to do so.

The President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, confirmed to Nigerian Tribune in an exclusive interview at the weekend that the union deliberately delayed the proposed industrial action for a purpose.

According to him, the purpose was to give the Federal Government the benefit of the doubt and enough time to address the union’s concerns.

“But up till now, several months after, government has not done anything concrete as regards all our issues.

“We are still on the same old narrative and as a union, it is time for us to take action on our proposed strike and that will be early January if government still refuses to do the needful by then,” he stated.

Osodeke explained that ASUU members have already run out of patience over the matter but for the leadership that has been pleading with them to give government more time.

Making reference to the last general meeting held by the union, the ASUU boss said, “When we met in November, the leadership had to plead with members to allow government to use the months of November and December to address our concerns thinking it would have done so by now, but here we are on the same old story.

“So, now, we are going to reconvene our meeting early January and take a decisive direction immediately if nothing is done by then by the government.”

He noted that the congress of the union had already endorsed industrial action as a way out of the situation and that the leadership will now go ahead to implement the decision of the congress.

He said the union does not need to give government new notice before declaring industrial action as notice to that effect had been given and even extended several times in the past as required by labour laws on the subject without government taking action.

Osodeke, nonetheless pleaded with Nigerians for understanding if the union eventually embarks on strike, noting that ASUU embarks on strike only when members have been pushed to the wall.

When asked about the position of the renegotiation committee team recently constituted by the Federal Government on the issues at stake, he said “ASUU has concluded its own meeting with the committee with the hope that government representatives will go back to government with the issues raised and the understanding reached and then come back to us to sign a fresh agreement, but as we speak, we have not heard anything from them now more than two weeks after we concluded the meeting.

“So, for how long do we wait for a feedback on the same issues that have been on for many years?” Osodeke queried.