ASUU: strike to be called off soon

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke has hinted that the union will soon call off its eight-month-old strike depending on the outcome of their meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives.

Professor Osodeke disclosed this after meeting with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in Abuja yesterday.

Any hope of resumption this year?

ASUU president said judging by the Union’s meeting with the leadership of the lower chamber, “there is light at the end of the tunnel”, adding that they hope that this meeting would be the last intervention from stakeholders on resolving the continued disagreement with the federal government on the union’s demand, for the sake of the Nigerian students.

“We hope that in the next few days, we will put an end to this strike. We want to have a system where the remuneration is enough to attract lecturers from all over the world to our universities.

“We are the giant of Africa and we must live by that. We thank the speaker for this intervention and we must work together so that every Nigerian will be proud of the universities we have” professor Osodeke said.

What agreement did ASUU reach with the speaker?

Speaker after the meeting, the speaker of the House of Reps, Femi Gbajabiamila said their meeting was fruitful and details of the president’s decision on the matter, would be announced today.

He disclosed that the leadership of the green chamber was able to ensure that all the demands of ASUU in terms of revitalization and salaries, among others, were provided for in the 2023 budget, adding that 470 billion naira was an earmark for ASUU in the 2023 budget.

“The issue of UTAS has been resolved as both the government and ASUU have agreed and both will sit to agree to include all the peculiarities required by ASUU on the IPPIS platform.” He added.