President of the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke has announced that the Association’s four-month long strike will end immediately the Federal Government signs the renegotiated agreement.
The ASUU boss made this revelation while featuring on Channels TV programme, Politics Today.
Osadeke said, “The strike can end tomorrow. We are done with the negotiations and now waiting for the government to call us for the signing of the renegotiated agreement,” he announced.
On the stalemate in negotiation since February 14, 2022, the ASUU President blamed the Federal Government for what he described as a lack of will to resolve contending issues.
His words: “If the government had been willing to resolve the issues affecting Nigerian universities, then there would be no need to go on strike. The problem is the will of the government to resolve issues.
“All the issues that made us go on strike are still there. That is, the revitalisation fund, that is putting more money into universities and revitalising the infrastructure in the universities. “There is also the issue of our mode of payments in the universities.
“There is no university in the world where lecturers are paid salaries from the Accountant General’s Office.
“We have challenged them to provide one, if universities are a universal body, why are they doing things differently?
“We talk of negotiation of the agreement, the proliferation of universities, among others, so there are lots of issues that they have not resolved.
“What we are doing is for the benefit of Nigerians. We want a situation where there will not be a disparity between the children of the rich and the poor in knowledge acquisition in this country.”
The ongoing ASUU strike began on February 14 and has crippled activities in all Federal Government owned Universities in the country as the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), Non-Academic Staff Union of Allied Educational Institutions (NASU) and National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) joined the ASUU strike in solidarity.
Following the breakthrough in negotiations with the striking Unions by the Prof. Ibrahim Gambari led Special committee setup by President Buhari, Nigerian students will delight in the hope that the end of 142 days old strike is close.
