The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its five weeks old strike following a closed door meeting with the Federal Government’s delegation.
Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi,
ASUU President announced this at a news conference after the closed
door meeting with the Federal Government on Monday in Abuja.
He
said they decided to conditionally suspend the strike action in view of
the timeline of October 2017 for the implementation of the signed
agreement.
According to Ogunyemi, after
an elaborate and extensive consultation process, the National Executive
Council (NEC) of ASUU has agreed to conditionally suspend the ongoing
action.
“We are taking into
cognisance the fact that major proposals from the government to address
the contending issues in the strike action has a deadline of the end of
October, 2017.
“All members of ASUU are to resume work after their branch congresses on Tuesday, September 19, 2017.
“ However, ASUU will not hesitate to review its position should government reneges on the signed Memorandum of Action,” he said.
He
urged the government not to deliberately dishonor the agreement,
pointing out that the continuous breach of signed agreement has been
responsible for the constant industrial actions in the Universities.
Ogunyemi
said that the current agreement with the government is based on mutual
trust between the union and the government, adding that the trust of the
union must be respected by the government.
Earlier, Sen Chris Ngige,
Minister of Labour and Employment at a conciliatory with ASUU and other
government delegation directed all members of the union to return to
work after their branch congresses on Tuesday.
Ngige said that members of the union had insisted that they were tired of having agreements that are not implemented.
The
minister pointed out that the content of the agreement was taken from
the series of meetings with the union since the commencement of the
strike.
He said further that that both the government and the union understood themselves and agreed on several issues.
He assured the union that the agreement reached would be implemented by the government in line with available resources.
He
also said that the union agreed to the exemption offered by the
government regarding the issue of Treasury Single Account (TSA), which
include the issue of grants, endowment fund as well as salary short
fall, which he said is already being implemented by the government.
On
the issue of state universities, he said they agreed that the union
would submit a position paper to the Federal Government on their
observation with a view to advise state governments on the funding of
state universities.
He commended the
union for being patriotic members of the society, saying that anybody
who demand better working equipment is no doubt a patriot.
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