The Academic Staff Union of Universities was ordered by a court order to end its continuing industrial action, but the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has defied this order.
The ASUU had been on a seven-month statewide strike until the National Industrial Court of Nigeria issued an order on Wednesday directing them to end the strike and return to their jobs.
The order was made in response to a petition filed in court by Dr. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labor and Employment, on behalf of the Federal Government.
Due to ASUU’s demands for more financing for colleges and a reassessment of lecturer wages, among other things, students at public institutions across the nation have been staying home since February 14.
Temitope Giwa, a spokesperson for NANS, stated in a statement in response to the court’s decision that it was unfair and against equity.
He claimed that the court ought to have ordered the Federal Government to comply with the requests of the teachers who were on strike rather than telling ASUU to go back to the classroom.
Giwa emphasized that the government’s decision to take ASUU to court demonstrated that it was unable to handle a crisis, and he said that the court could not order ASUU members to go to work.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its 7-month strike. As an association, we feel disturbed to read the news of the judgment because we believe that it betrays equity.
“Ordinarily, the Federal Government is not meant to have dragged ASUU to court. But, the fact that they had to drag ASUU to court is a signal that this government cannot handle the crisis. And, we want to state categorically that the court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres.
“And, as it stands today, with that court judgment, we maintain that the court has not resolved the problem and we reject the judgment in strong terms. The court could have said that the Federal Government should go and pay rather than say that lecturers who are on strike should go back to classrooms. We were expecting the court to have understood that lecturers are on the contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render.
“The only remedy to this strike action is for the Federal Government to accede to the demands of ASUU which the government willingly entered into with them and properly fund education.”
