ASUU strike: ACCE postpones annual international conference

Ini Billie, Uyo

The African Council for Communication Education (ACCE, Nigeria Chapter) has postponed its annual international conference owing to the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

The 23rd International Conference/AGM which is in consultation with the Department of Mass Communication, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State, was initially scheduled to hold from October 25 to 28, 2022.

The conference and AGM (ACCE-UNIZIK 2022) had the theme: “Communicating Science, Technology, and Innovation in Times of Economic Distress, Terror, and a Global Pandemic”.

Announcing the postponement on Tuesday in a release jointly signed by Prof. Nnamdi T. Ekeanyanwu, Prof Ezekiel Asemah and Dr Obiorah Edogor, National President, National Secretary ACCE, and COC, ACCE-UNIZIK 2022 respectively, ACCE said the strike which grounded academic activities in public universities since February 2022, has caused the majority of members and potential participants untold economic and psychological hardships.

“The postponement is caused by the protracted ASUU National Strike that has shut the nation’s public universities since February 2022, causing the majority of members and potential participants untold economic and psychological hardships. 

“The Conference/AGM will, however, reconvene three months after the NEC of ASUU calls off/suspends the National Strike. This is to enable the ACCE National Council, Conference Organizing Committee of UNIZIK, as well as ACCE members and potential participants to prepare to attend and by so doing make the Conference/AGM a huge success.

“The exact dates will be announced by the ACCE in due course, but the programme schedules subsist. With this announcement, the abstract submission for the conference will now continue until the date ASUU suspends the National Strike.

“The main theme of the Conference remains “Communicating Science, Technology, and Innovation in Times of Economic Distress, Terror, and a Global Pandemic”. Professor Bruce Mutsvairo of the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, will deliver the Lead Paper while the nation’s top science and nuclear agencies will facilitate special sessions,” the release stated.

ACCE explained that the postponement was in support of ASUU in its struggle to salvage the remains of Nigeria’s battered public university system, and condemned the Federal Government’s management of public universities and its unfortunate disdain for anything education in Nigeria.

“Quality education plays a huge role in the development of any country and the earlier the Nigerian Government realises this, the better for the country,” it said.