TheCable

The African Council for Communication Education (ACCE) has postponed its 2022 annual conference, in solidarity with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The 2022 annual conference of the ACCE, themed ‘Communicating Science, Technology, and Innovation in Times of Economic Distress, Terror, and a Global Pandemic’, was initially scheduled to hold from October 25 to 28.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 to press home the demand for improved funding for universities, review of salaries for lecturers, among other issues.

Several meetings between ASUU and the federal government have ended in deadlock.

Consequently, the federal government went to court to challenge the strike.

On September 21, the national industrial court of Nigeria (NICN) ordered the ASUU to call off its strike, after which the union filed an appeal seeking a stay of execution of the judgment.

Nnamdi Ekeanyanwu and Ezekiel Asemeh, national president and secretary of council, in a joint statement on Tuesday, said the postponement of the annual conference is to support ASUU on the decision to embark on the strike.

“This has brought untold economic and psychological hardship upon majority of our members and potential participants,” the statement by the group reads.

“The new dates for the conference will be announced in due course. The programme schedules subsist.

“We condemn the way in which the public university system is being managed by the Federal Government.

“Quality education plays a huge role in the development of any country. The earlier we realise this, the better for the country.”