ASUU STRIKE: Jonathan Blames Labour Laws

Vacant Law lecture theater, University of Ibadan

Had the labour laws been better, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) would not have gone on strike. This opinion was expressed by President Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday during a presidential media chat in Abuja.
Jonathan said it was unthinkable that lecturers in state-owned universities would go on strike over issues concerning their allowances in federal universities. He advocated a review of labour laws to curtail the excesses of ASUU and other labour unions.
President stated that such a situation would not emerge, if well-guided and well-thought out laws were in place regulating labour union activities.

He kept on saying that the N79 billion Earned Allowance arrears, which was the major reason for the ASUU strike, was not supposed to be paid from the federation account but from the Internally Generated Revenue of the universities, if a good labour law is in place.
Jonathan urged ASUU to reconsider its position, accept government offer, and call its members back to the classrooms.
It will be recalled that ASUU has been on an indefinite strike since June 30. The lecturers protest against the FG’s failure to honour a 2009 agreement signed between it and ASUU in 2009 pertaining to issues of university funding and improvement of infrastructure in the sector.