Academic activities were on Tuesday grounded at the Ugbowo campus of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) sequel to the warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
ASUU declared a four-strike after its National Executive Congress (NEC) met in Lagos to press the Federal Government to implement the 2009 agreement.
Students, who reported for classes at the campus, were stranded as no lecturer turned up for lectures.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent, who was at the university to monitor the situation, reports that they converged in groups, discussing the effects of the industrial action on their studies.
However, non-academic activities such as the collection of results, payment of charges, and course registration were ongoing and were attended to by the non-academic staff of the institution.
Speaking with NAN after the congress at the local branch, Dr Ray Chikogu, the Chairman of UNIBEN branch of ASUU said members were excited about the strike.
“We just emerged from the congress, where we delivered the message from the national ASUU to the effect that a month industrial action in the first instance has been declared.
“So we came back to give the report to our congress
.
“Our congress received that the news with excitement because they were the one in actual fact, who sent us to ask our national leadership to take the last option since all other efforts we have made have not produced any results since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between our union and the Federal Government in December 2020.
“We have done everything possible to ensure the Federal Government fulfills its promises outlined in that agreement.
“We have gone to see the Chief of Staff to the President; we have gone to see the National Assembly and use other means to lobby and carried out several visits to government agencies, yet no result.
“So we have to resort to this since this is the only thing the government understands,” Chikogu said.
The ASUU leader noted that the action would be total and did not need the leadership to come out for enforcement because of the issues involved.
“It is the same people who asked us to go and declare a strike to compel the government to meet their obligations to us.
“Compliance will be total, we don’t need to enforce compliance because of the issues involved,” he said. (NAN)
