INEC: ASUU strike’ll affect preparations for 2019 polls

The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday raised the alarm that the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities would affect its preparations for the 2019 elections .

ASUU , had on November 5 , 2018 begun an indefinite strike over the failure of the Federal Government to implement three areas in the Memorandum of Action it signed with the union on September 14 , 2017 .

The lecturers ’ grouse with the Federal Government included its failure to carry out the Forensic Audit of the earned academic allowances of the lecturers since 2017 and the payment of N20 bn out of an agreed N220 bn annually and underfunding of the public universities .
Briefing journalists before ASUU started the ongoing strike on November 5 , its National President , Prof . Biodun Ogunyemi , said all entreaties made to the Federal Government to honour the agreement with the union fell on deaf ears and they had no alternative but to begin the strike .

The lecturers ’ grouse with the Federal Government included its failure to carry out the Forensic Audit of the earned academic allowances of the lecturers since 2017 and the payment of N20 bn out of an agreed N220 bn annually and underfunding of the public universities .

Briefing journalists before ASUU started the ongoing strike on November 5 , its National President , Prof . Biodun Ogunyemi , said all entreaties made to the Federal Government to honour the agreement with the union fell on deaf ears and they had no alternative but to begin the strike .

Ogunyemi alleged that the government was not interested in public universities as the children of the top politicians and rich men in the society patronise private universities at the detriment of public institutions.

Both sides have met four times without resolving the crisis , thus forcing students of public universities , who constitute the majority of INEC ad hoc staff during elections , to stay at home .

On Thursday , a National Commissioner for INEC and Chairman of its Information and other Education Committee , Festus Okoye, expressed concerns about the effect of the ASUU strike on the 2019 elections during the opening of a one - day seminar on media gender sensitive reporting .

The event , which was organised by INEC , was supported by the United Nations Women and the Canadian Government.
The commission said that it would deploy over one million ad hoc staff made up of lecturers in federal tertiary institutions, members of the National Youth Service Corps and students of federal tertiary institutions in the elections .