The Coalition of Southern and Middle Belt Youth Leaders Assembly, (COSMBYLA) has given the federal government seven days to resolve its impasse with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the ongoing industrial action.
The coalition announced the ultimatum to the public in a statement signed by Goodluck Ibem, the president-general of COSMBYLA on Wednesday.
ASUU had on February 14 given a notice of 30 days warning strike to allow the federal government the grace to address the union’s demand.
The federal government did not meet up with the union of lecturers’ demands at the end of the 30 days. The strike action was rolled over on March 14.
Expressing sadness over the state of education in the country following the incessant strikes by ASUU, Ibem alleged that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is consciously refusing to resolve the differences with the lecturers.
The coalition’s president emphasised that there would be no development in the country without education as he called on Nigerians to act fast to save the education system.
The group vowed to go on nationwide protest if the federal government fails to resolve the issues in the next seven days.
“All students, our youths, and all lovers of democracy who mean well for our nation must rise up now and say no to these policies of backwardness by President Muhammadu Buhari who has no plans to ensure Nigerian students and their lecturers go back to school.
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“We, therefore, give the federal government 7 days ultimatum to resolve the ASUU strike or face mass protests by Nigerian students and youths. The time is counting,” the statement read in part.
Due to the ongoing ASUU strike, many Nigerian students in public universities have been out of the university communities across the nation without hope of when studies would resume again.
Besides, many businesses around and within the tertiary institutions are paralysed causing undue economic hardship to the entrepreneurs as a result of the impasse between the federal government and ASUU.
ASUU has stated that the union is not ready to call off the strike until the federal government meets its demands of replacing the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System (IPPIS) with the Universities Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and the fulfillment of the 2009 agreement on the Earned Academic Allowance.
However, the federal government has alleged that the UTAS payment system did not pass the integrity test according to reports from the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Many other unions such Non-academic staff union of Education and associated institutions (NASU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), etc; have joined ASUU in the strike, thereby bringing about a total collapse of the university communities in Nigeria.
