Aiyelu Timothy
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has denied calling of the ongoing strike after holding a meeting with the Federal Government on Friday.
Reports claim that the Union and the government had agreed on an increase of the Earned Allowances (EA) as well as funding for the revitalization of public universities from N65bn to N70bn.
Speaking with journalists after the meeting, Labour minister, Chris Ngige, said an agreement has been reached between the two parties on the core issues.
“In our last meeting, we agreed on so many things. Today we have discussed the issues again. As you know, there are about eight issues. We have done justice to all these and ASUU is supposed to take our conclusions to their organs. I do hope as a conciliator that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as I do hope ASUU will come back to us,” Mr Ngige said
ASUU has been on a 8-month long strike and the Union President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, denied knowledge of any agreement to call off the strike.
According to Prof. Biodun, the only agreement reached was for the union to convey the Federal Government’s message to their organs and later send feedback to the Government.
In his words; “I am not aware of that. All I know is that we had a meeting and we are hoping to report to our members. But I don’t know about suspension of strike.”
The demands of the Academic Uniion includes, funding for the revitalisation of universities, earned allowances, the shortfall in salaries, visitation panels for universities and use of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
