The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU will Sunday meet to decide whether to continue the six-month-old strike, according to Punch.
The newspaper quoted sources in ASUU as saying that the union’s National Executive Council, NEC will meet on August 28, to deliberate on the way forward on the industrial action which started on February 14.
“The NEC meeting will hold on August 28, the four weeks ultimatum that we gave is expiring that same day. We will be making our decisions based on the results of the state congresses.
“The NEC has to depend on the result of the congresses. The zones have held their own congresses; the branch chairmen will also talk to their members and they will get feedback which will be transmitted to the NEC,” one of the sources said.
The magazine learned that some branches of ASUU have been putting pressure on the leadership of the union to end the strike, to pave way for more robust negotiations with the government, particularly following reports that the union may be proscribed by the federal government as a last resort for academic activities to return to the nation’s ivory towers after a prolong strike by the academic teachers.
The lecturers are also under serious pressure from friends and family members who are no longer finding the no-work-no-pay policy funny, sources say.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodede had last week disclosed that some of his members have turned to taxi drivers and farmers to make ends meet in the wake of the federal government’s decision not to pay them for the period of the strike.
The university lecturers had last week vowed not to return to the lecture rooms until all their demands are met.
The union is demanding among other things, the renegotiation of the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement; release of revitalisation funds for universities; deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; release of earned allowances; and the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities.
When the federal government met the Osodeke-led ASUU penultimate week, the meeting ended in a stalemate after the union accused the government of unseriousness in resolving the contentious issues.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu would later reveal that the decision by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government not to pay the lecturers for the period of the strike, is the major reason why an agreement had not been reached with the angry lecturers.
‘All contentious issues between the government and ASUU had been settled except the quest for members’ salaries for the period of strike to be paid, a demand that Buhari has flatly rejected,” the minister said.
Meanwhile, the Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Universities, SSANU and the Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied and Education Institutions, NASU on Monday suspended their strike actions.
The two unions disclosed this at the week end in Abuja, the nation’s capital after a brief meeting of their leaders with Adamu.
They said in a statement that they suspended the strike for a period of two months to enable the federal government to address their problems.
According to the unions, “The two months allow the government to implement the agreements reached.
“Part of the agreement is the decision of the government to set aside the sum of N50 billion for the payment of earned academic and earned allowances, the cogent decision on the University Peculiar Personnel Payroll System (UPPPS), the release of the white paper on university visitation panel and funding of the universities.
“On the poor funding of federal institutions, the Minister said he directed the National Universities Commission (NUC) to ensure that all the schools are up-to-date on what they are supposed to do, otherwise sanctions will be visited on any institution that defaults.”
The suspension takes effect from August 24, the unions said.
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