ASUU STRIKE LATEST: Indeed, ASUU set to suspend strike this week – Union leaders

Indications have emerged that the
Academic Staff Union of Universities may
call off the over four-month-old strike on
Thursday.
Barring a last-minute change, the
National Executive Committee of ASUU
will meet on Wednesday night to consider
the position of the congresses of the over
50 public universities on the offer made
by the Federal government to revamp the
institutions.
The union met with a Federal Government
team led by President Goodluck Jonathan
last Tuesday in Abuja.
The ASUU leadership, after briefing the
zonal coordinators on the offer, had
directed the local branches to organise
congress meetings between Friday last
week and Tuesday (tomorrow).
This is to enable all the lecturers to make
input into the action the union would take
after its NEC meeting on Thursday.
However, feelers from most universities
that had organised their congresses
revealed that ASUU would suspend the
strike after the Thursday NEC meeting.
In some universities, including the
Obafemi Awolowo University and the
Lagos State University that have
scheduled their congress meetings for
Monday (today), union leaders and
lecturers expressed hope that the strike
would end this week.
Also, some top officials of the union in
some of the nine zones of ASUU said even
though they were not happy with the plan
by the government to inject N220bn
yearly into the public universities for the
next five years, they were pleased that a
commitment had been obtained by the
union.
Though the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of
ASUU, Dr. Nasir Adesola, confirmed that
the NEC meeting would hold on
Wednesday, he did not say whether the
strike would be called off or not.
“Yes, the NEC will hold on Wednesday
evening but ASUU has a process which
we are going to follow. NEC reserves the
right to call off the strike after due
consultation with members and this is
why congresses are being called in all the
chapters of the union. Please, wait till
after the congress,” he told one of our
correspondents on the telephone.
But another source said, “Our NEC
meeting will hold between Wednesday
night and Thursday. Our chapters have
started holding meetings to discuss the
Federal Government’s offer. This is to
allow input from all the lecturers. We have
to carry them along to avoid disunity
since there are moves by some elements
to infiltrate us.”
Another source told one of our
correspondents that some members had
expressed mixed feelings about the
Federal Government’s new offer based on
its refusal to honour past agreements.
“The radicals among us are sceptical
about this latest offer. They do not believe
that government will respect the
agreement. Their view is that government
only wants to deceive the union to call off
the strike before it will jettison it.”
A top official of the union, who confirmed
the fears, told one of our correspondents
that although members’ opinions at the
zonal congresses were divided over the
government’s offer, the majority still
decided to give the government the benefit
of the doubt.
He also said that the majority opinion was
that the review of the agreement which
was supposed to hold this year should be
postponed till next year in the interest of
peace.
The official added, “Members were
persuaded because President Goodluck
Jonathan personally met with the union.
They felt since the President was involved
in the negotiation this time around, the
government would not say that it was
arm-twisted to make the offer.
“This is the problem we are having with
the 2009 agreement. By now we should
be talking about a review but we are still
having troubles with implementation.
“Although feelers across the zones are
that we should call off the strike, we are
going to put down the government offer in
black and white and make it public so
that nobody accuses us tomorrow of
asking for too much.”
Some universities are expected to hold
their congresses on Monday (today) to
discuss the outcome of the zonal
congresses held at nine centres across
the country last week.
A source at the meeting between the
government and ASUU told one of our
correspondents that the government after
a long debate agreed to inject N220bn
yearly for the next five years beginning
from 2014.
He had said, “The meeting should be the
longest that we have ever had on this
crisis but I can tell you that both parties
were frank all through the discussions.
The parties also showed commitment
towards ending the crisis. The President
in particular showed that he was serious
about ending the strike and that was why
he offered to release over N1tn to the
universities in the next five years.
“The money will be released on a yearly
basis at N220bn per annum beginning
from 2014. For the outgoing year, the
Federal Government will only release
N100bn and this has been processed.
“In order to show commitment to this
deal, the money will be kept at the Central
Bank of Nigeria and will be released on a
quarterly basis to the universities. So,
there won’t be any problem about funding
the deal.”
The source added that the National
Universities Commission and the Trade
Union Congress would be joint guarantors
of the new agreement while the Minister of
Education would be the implementation
officer.
He said that the government also agreed,
among other things, to revamp the public
universities by ensuring that all the issues
that always lead to strike were dealt with
once and for all.