NANS reacts to court judgment directing university lecturers back to classroom

The National Association of Nigerian Students has kicked against the court order that mandated the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off its 7-month strike.

Pulse had earlier reported that the National Industrial Court of Nigeria ordered ASUU to end the ongoing strike.

ASUU has been on strike since Monday, February 14, 2022, to press home its demands from the Federal Government.

Several meetings have also taken place between the union and the government to resolve the crisis, but the meetings ended in a deadlock.

Reacting to the court judgement on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, NANS National Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, in a statement said the order betrays equity.

The students argued that the court cannot force their lecturers to call off the strike.

The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a news of a court judgment mandating the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call of 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 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 contract of personal service hence, they cannot be compelled to render a service they don’t want to render.

According to the students, the only remedy to the incessant 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.