The National President of ASUU, Professor  Emmanuel Oshodeke, in an interview, stated that the government had not implemented the agreement it reached with the union nor responded to the ultimatum.

The union had on July 19 issued a fresh ultimatum to the Federal Government to pay the outstanding 10-month arrears of its members’ salaries or be prepared for another industrial action.

The union gave the government till August 31 to meet its demands including the resolution of issues relating to the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System platform.

Between September 10 and  September  2021, all ASUU zones across the country held press conferences calling on the government to implement their demands.

They also asked Nigerians to hold the Federal Government responsible if the university lecturers embarked on another strike.

When asked if the FG responded to the ultimatum, the ASUU president said, “Nothing yet, not a single response from the government. For now, we are in Abuja we are meeting soon. No single response from the government. We are meeting this weekend in Abuja. We want to see what we can do between now and Friday to see them. Despite the letter, we wrote to them and the press conferences, they are not bothered   because nothing is at stake for them.”

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba,  has denied claims by ASUU that the Federal Government had been ignoring its leadership.

He said there was no way ASUU leaders would reach out to the government and nobody would attend to them.

Nwajiuba insisted that the National Universities Commission was working on some of the demands made by ASUU in its ultimatum issued to the government which has elapsed, and an announcement would be made once the assignment had been completed.

“The message is simple.  The NUC is working on the issues raised, the moment they are done, a statement will be issued to let everybody be aware of the situation on the ground,” said Nwajiuba.