The Federal Government has come out to say that the 2 weeks warning strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, is illegal.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige revealed this as he spoke to State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

According to him, going by the International Labour Organization, ILO, Convention, ASUU should’ve notified the government before embarking on strike, which they failed to do.

He added that the strike is definitely illegal since no employee is permitted to dictate to the employer.

His words, “They didn’t give us the mandatory notice before they started the strike, so this strike is illegal. No employee is permitted to dictate to the employer, it is in the ILO Convention.”

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The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is a Nigerian union of university academic staff, founded in 1978.

The ASUU was formed in 1978, a successor to the Nigerian Association of University Teachers formed in 1965 and covering academic staff in all of the Federal and State Universities in the country.

The union was active in struggles against the military regime during the 1980s. In 1988 the union organized a National Strike to obtain fair wages and university autonomy. As a result, the ASUU was proscribed on 7 August 1988 and all its property seized. It was allowed to resume in 1990, but after another strike was again banned on 23 August 1992. However, an agreement was reached on 3 September 1992 that met several of the union’s demands including the right of workers to collective bargaining. The ASUU organized further strikes in 1994 and 1996, protesting against the dismissal of staff by the Sani Abacha military regime.

After the return to democracy in 1999 with the Nigerian Fourth Republic, the union continued to be militant in demanding the rights of university workers against opposition by the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. In July 2002 Dr. Oladipo Fashina, the then national president of the union, petitioned Justice Mustapha Akanbi of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission to investigate the authorities of the University of Ilorin for financial mismanagement and corruption.