The Academic Staff Union of Universities has
said it will not suspend its ongoing strike
until the four months salaries owed its
members are paid.
The union also wants the immediate
implementation of the N1.2tn offer by the
Federal Government to public universities,
starting with the release of N100bn this year.
The balance of N1.1tn is to be spread over
five years from 2014.
These were some of the resolutions reached
by members of the National Executive Council
of the union who converged on Kano on
Friday to deliberate on whether to call off the
over four- month-old industrial action or not.
A source, who was privy to the resolutions
reached during the President Goodluck
Jonathan – ASUU leadership meeting three
weeks ago, told The PUNCH on Sunday, that
the fresh demands were some of the issues to
be tabled before Jonathan by the leadership
during their next meeting. A date for the
meeting is yet to be fixed.
According to the source, a strong
commitment to two demands, among other
pending issues, must be obtained from the
President before the industrial action will be
called off by the union.
He said, “The issue now is on trust and we
do not want a situation where promises will
not be kept. The authorities have failed us in
the past and we do not want a repeat of that.
”That was why we decided at the NEC
meeting that the government should pay us
the arrears of salaries being owed us since we
started the strike on July1 before the strike
can be called off. The salaries should not be
paid piecemeal.
“We also insist that the Federal Government
should start the implementation of the offer
made to us when we met the President some
weeks ago.
“For instance, the N100bn he (Jonathan)
agreed to inject into the university system in
2013 should be released to the universities
immediately. So, we decided that before
the strike could be called off, these two
conditions and others must be met not by
promises but by real action.”
The NEC members, who met behind closed
doors at the Bayero University, Kano, were
said to have reviewed the reports of the
various university congresses on the strike.
Our source, who did not want his name in
print, added that the death of a former
National President of ASUU, Prof. Festus
Iyayi, was discussed at the NEC meeting.
Iyayi, a University of Benin lecturer, died in an
auto accident involving the convoy of the
Kogi State Governor, Idris Wada and an ASUU
vehicle, on his way to Kano for the
meeting.The union’s National Welfare Officer,
Dr. Ngozi Ilo, was injured.
Our source said the accident “almost led to
the discontinuation of the ongoing
negotiation with the Federal Government.
He added, “Some members expressed the
belief that he (Iyayi) was killed by the
government and therefore argued that the
ongoing negotiation should be called off.
Tempers rose but some members argued that
the President should be respected because he
had created the record of being the first
Nigerian leader to meet with the leadership
of ASUU on the issue of making the nation’s
university system better. They also argued
that students and parents should be
considered.”
It was also learnt that after arguments for
and against, about 60 per cent of the
members of the NEC voted in favour of the
discontinuation of the strike while the
remaining 40 per cent voted no.
But it was gathered that the NEC members
unanimously agreed that before the strike
could be called off, the leadership should ask
the government to pay the four-month salary
arrears being owed university teachers while
the offer made by the government should be
implemented immediately.
A key component of the agreement reached
by both ASUU and the Federal Government
when the President led the government team
was that government would inject N1.2tn
into public universities.
The government also agreed that the N1.2tn
would be domiciled at the Central Bank of
Nigeria to show its commitment to the
agreement.
The money is expected to be released on
quarterly basis to the universities so that
there won’t be any problem about
implementing the deal.
The National Universities Commission and
the Trade Union Congress will be the joint
guarantors of the agreement while the
Minister of Education will be the
implementing officer. The government also
agreed to revamp public universities by
ensuring that all the issues that always lead
to strike were dealt with once and for all.
A majority of the chapters of the union had
agreed to the suspension of the strike
following the fresh commitment the
leadership of ASUU obtained from the
government.
ASUU National President, Dr. Nassir Fagge,
did not pick the several calls made to his
telephone line by one of our correspondents
on Sunday to confirm the fresh demands.
The University of Lagos chapter ASUU
Chairman, Dr. Karo Ogbinaka, and his
counterpart in the Lagos State University, Dr.
Adekunle Idris, also refused to divulge
information on the outcome of the NEC
meeting.
ASUU had embarked on the strike to protest
against the failure of the government to
implement the agreement they signed in
2009.
The pact largely centered on better funding
of the universities, a declaration of a state of
emergency in tertiary education, better wages
and payment of earned allowances to
lecturers.
It had suspended the NEC meeting
penultimate week following Iyayi’s death.
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Source: http://www.punchng.com/news/no-salary-arrears-no-resumption-ASUU/

Onli God will juj dis ppl.u dint work and u ar expectin salaries....no food 4 lazy men....bagas. 1st to coment sha

No be I don talk say I no wan hear ASUU matter again. Ha

Useless ASUU... These ppl re crazy na, they didn't work still they re clamouring for payment. Some reasonable ppl can deduce with me that these i.diots re fighting for their pockets, not for the decaying standard of education. May their lives be miserable. Foolish ppl.