ASUU set to suspend strike this week

Indications have emerged that the  Academic Staff Union of Universities may call off the over four-month-old strike on Thursday.

Barring a last-minute change, the National Executive Committee of ASUU will meet on Wednesday night to consider the position of the congresses of the over 50 public universities on the offer made by the Federal government to revamp the institutions.

The  union met with  a Federal Government team led by President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesday in Abuja.

The  ASUU leadership, after briefing the zonal coordinators  on  the offer, had directed the local branches   to organise  congress meetings between Friday last week and Tuesday (tomorrow).

This is to enable all the lecturers to make input into the action the union would take after its NEC meeting on Thursday.

However, feelers from most universities that had organised their congresses revealed that ASUU  would suspend the strike after the  Thursday NEC meeting.

In  some universities, including the Obafemi Awolowo University and the Lagos State University that have scheduled their congress meetings for Monday (today),  union leaders and lecturers expressed hope that the strike would end this week.

Also, some top officials of the union in some of the nine zones of ASUU said even though they were not happy with the plan by the government to inject N220bn yearly into the public universities for the next five years, they were pleased that a commitment had been obtained by the union.

Though the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Adesola, confirmed that the NEC meeting would hold on Wednesday, he did not say whether the strike would be called off or not.

“Yes, the NEC will hold on Wednesday evening but ASUU has a process which we are going to follow. NEC reserves the right to call off the strike after due consultation with members and this is why congresses are being called in all the chapters of the union. Please, wait till after the congress,” he told one of our correspondents on the telephone.

But another  source said, “Our NEC meeting will hold between Wednesday night and Thursday. Our chapters have started holding meetings to discuss the Federal Government’s offer. This is to allow input from all the lecturers. We have to carry them along to avoid disunity since there are moves by some elements to infiltrate us.”

Another source told one of our correspondents that some members had expressed mixed feelings about the Federal Government’s  new offer based on its refusal to honour  past  agreements.

PUNCH