October 10, (THEWILL) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said that the union would soon call off its seven monthly old strike.
ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, said this at a meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives on Monday, in Abuja.
He said from what the union had seen at the meeting, there is light at the end of the tunnels, adding that this time around it hoped that there would not be any persons or groups to create issues that would make the union run into any hitch
Osodeke, who expressed hope that the intervention by the leadership of the House would be the final for the sake of the students, added that ASUU’s struggle was for the educational system in Nigeria and the university system.
According to him, “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 all over the World.”
He said that Nigerian universities should also be paid in hard currencies by attracting foreign students while expressing worry over some good lecturers that were leaving the country.
“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”, he said, adding that the seventh-month-old strike should not have gone beyond two weeks if the National Assembly had intervened before now.
The Speaker of the House of Reps, Femi Gbajabiamila, said that the intervention by the leadership of the House was fruitful, adding that the meeting with the President, Muhammadu Buhari, was far-reaching.
He said Buhari’s decision would be made known to the union and the public on Oct. 11, adding that the leadership of the House were able to ensure that all the demands of ASUU in terms of revitalisation, salaries among others have been provided for in the 2023 budget.
Gbajabiamila confirmed that N470 billion had been included in the 2023 budget to accommodate ASUU’s demand.
“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 payment platform.
“I believe we have covered ground, and it’s basically what we have agreed on. ASUU would have called off the strike today and hopefully in the next couple of days.
“There is a probability that the strike will be called off. We thank ASUU for responding at every moment we have called them. We met in my office and it was positive. We did this for the sake of our students”, he said
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