The Court cannot force members of ASUU back to lecture theatres – NANS rejects judgement

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has rejected the Court order to the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU to suspend it’s ongoing strike.

The federal government had dragged the union to court over it’s long standing industrial action

Reacting in a statement, NANS National Public Relations Officer, Giwa Temitope, referred to the ruling as a “black market judgment.” According to him, the ruling betrayed equity because the Federal Government ought not to drag the academic union before the court in the first place adding that the court also cannot force the union back to lecture theatres

The statement reads: “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 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.

“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.”