Vice-chancellors in Nigeria have been ordered to reopen their institutions and allow students to start attending classes again right away.
According to information obtained by The PUNCH on Monday, the letter was issued to all vice chancellors, pro chancellors, and chairman of governing councils of federal institutions.
“Ensure that ASUU members immediately resume/commence lectures; Restore the daily activities and routines of the various University campuses,” the letter partly reads.
The National Universities Commission (NUC), together with a letter from Professor Abubakar Rasheed, the commission’s executive secretary, and its Director of Finance and Accounts, Sam Onazi, were used by the government to issue the directive.
This comes after, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) a few days ago was told to end its ongoing nationwide strike on Wednesday, September 21, 2022, by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).
The Nigerian Government was claimed to have been forced into implementing agreements it had previously agreed with the union by the group of lecturers in public universities, who had issued a warning strike on February 14.
The agreement outlined how university education would be paid for in order to improve it.
After the government failed to put all the agreements into action, the strike extended and is now in its seventh month.
ASUU and the Federal Government have held a number of discussions that have come to a standstill.
As a result, the strike was contested in court by the Federal Government.
James Igwe, the government’s attorney, asked the court for an interlocutory injunction to stop ASUU from continuing the strike while the substantive lawsuit was being adjudicated.