ASUU President Reveals When Strike Will Be Called Off

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Mary Ugwuanyi

Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has assured that an end to the ongoing strike is in sight.

Osodeke stated this during a meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives in Abuja on Monday.

The ASUU President stated that the discussions with the House had given hope that “there is light at the end of the tunnel” to the eight-month-old strike.

He said, “This time around it is hoped that there would not be any persons or group to create issues that would make the union run into any hitch.”

“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 to our universities.”

Osodeke argued that the country’s universities should be made attractive to the best brains across the world to desire to school and lecture in Nigeria.

He added, “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 further said.

He stated that the strike should not have gone beyond two weeks, “if the National Assembly had intervened before now”.

Speaking at the meeting, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Reps, expressed delight that the intervention by the House was yielding results.

See Also: ASUU Strike: Buhari Budgets N470bn For University Funding In 2023

The Speaker noted that the leadership of the House had a fruitful meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to Gbajabiamila, the president will disclose his decision to ASUU and the public on October 11.

He added that the House ensured that ASUU’s demands relating to revitalisation and salaries, among others, were included in the 2023 budget.

According to the Speaker, N470 billion had been included in the 2023 budget to cover ASUU’s demand.

He said, “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.

“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.

Source: Guardian

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