Barring last-minute changes, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may suspend its three-month-old strike on Thursday, February 7. Expectedly, the news will interest students who have spent the last three months at home due to the prolonged strike.
Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, confirmed to journalists last weekend, in Abuja, that the Federal government had resolved virtually all contentious areas that prompted the strike on November 4, 2018. Adamu was optimistic that ASUU and Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) would follow the footsteps of College of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) to call off the strike for the benefit of the students whose academic programmes have been interrupted.
Adamu said: “For ASUP, we have resolved virtually all issues they presented to us, particularly the issue of polytechnic act review, revitalisation of polytechnics, allowances and shortfalls, renegotiation of the 2010 agreements amongst others. “For ASUU, government team has reached an agreement. We expected them to have suspended the strike last weekend. But it was obvious that they needed to meet at the National Executive Committee (NEC) to take decisions.
In its reaction, ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, admitted that certain agreement was reached with the government in their recent meetings but the suspension of the strike depended on the outcome of the meeting of NEC schedule for Thursday.
Meanwhile, the Minister of labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, has extended an invitation to ASUU officials for a conciliatory meeting that might lead to the suspension of the three-month-old strike. The Sun
