Monday, 25 November 2013
ASUU GIVES FG THREE CONDITIONS TO END STRIKE.
University
lecturers have finally agreed to suspend their five months old strike, The
Nation learnt yesterday.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has given three
condition before President Goodluck Jonathan today. If the terms tabled are
acceptable to the Federal Government, the union will call off the strike.
The ASUU leadership has banned its local chapters and zonal
chairmen from talking to the media until after the session with the President.
ASUU President Dr. Nasir Issa Fagge and other leaders of the
union were being expected in Abuja last night.
According
to a source, who was part of the ASUU session at Mambayya House in Kano, the
conditions are: •commitment from the President that any review or
reconsideration or renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement will not substantially
affect the pact which is the cause of the ongoing strike;
•immediate
payment of all outstanding salary arrears and allowances of varsity teachers
without victimization; and
•a
written commitment from the President that the Federal Government will commit
N225billion annually to the funding of universities for the next four years.
There
is a fourth condition, which is said to be “personal” to ASUU, bordering on the
need to be wary of gradual loss of public sympathy.
The
union leaders were said to have acknowledged public goodwill for the strike and
the need to avert any action that could erode such confidence.
The
source said: “Our leaders are meeting with the President on Monday to table
these conditions. Once the President accepts these three terms, the strike will
be called off.
“In
principle, members voted about 60-40 per cent to call off the strike, but they
added a caveat – that ASUU leaders should extract a commitment (signed and
sealed) from the President.
The
union is said to have insisted on the three conditions because during talks
with the Federal Government, it was apparent that the government wanted a
renegotiation of the 2009 Agreement.
“If
ASUU had accepted to renegotiate the entire Agreement , it means there will be
no basis for the ongoing strike. The worst that can happen is either having the
abridged version of the 2009 Agreement or a phased implementation of the
document,” the source added.
The
Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko (AAUA), Ondo State became at the
weekend the third institution to break ranks with the striking union.
It
asked its students to return to the campus today. Lecture are to start on
December 2, according to the Registrar, Mr. Bamidele Olotu.
Enugu
State University of Technology (ESUT), Enugu, and the Ibrahim Badamosi
University, Lapai, in Niger State had earlier directed the reopening of the
schools.
The
registrar directed students to begin their registration on the school portal
immediately.
AAUA
Student Union President Julius Adeniyi welcomed the resumption plan and assured
his fellow students of a hitch-free semester.
He
said: “We are dying and wasting away our time at home; and I am backing my Vice
Chancellor on the resumption date. We are coming in and nothing will happen
SHARE THIS POST
Designer: Emeka
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments: