Strike may be over in few days – ASSU president, Gbajabiamila

By Tom Okpe

The lingering strike by the members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) might be over in few days as the body has come to terms with the Federal Government, saying there is light at the end of the tunnel.

ASUU National President, Professor Emmanuel Osadeke made this revelation after a meeting between the union and Femi Gbajabimila, speaker of the House of Representatives in Abuja on Monday.

He said the union officials met briefly behind closed doors with the speaker and took note of the grounds covered by the Federal Government and they will return to their members between yesterday (Monday) and today (Tuesday) to take the final decision.

Osedeke said: “We have actually met briefly in the speaker’s office and looked at all issues. We have taken note of what they have covered. But, my union you know we operate bottom up, we don’t take decisions without having consents of our members.

“So, we have agreed that between now (yesterday) and tomorrow (today) we are going to get some documentations signed that we can take to our members and we will do that as quickly as possible in the interest of all Nigerians, and the students so that this thing can be resolved as quickly as possible.

“From what we have seen today (yesterday), for the first time since this our action started, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel because this is the first time we are having such thing and we hope this time around there will not be any attempt by persons, or groups to create something that will make us run into anything again. We hope that this will be the final in the interest of our children.

“We hope that working together in the next few days will put an end to this particular imbroglio in the Nigerian educational system.”

The ASUU president said the union’s struggle was for the interest of the Nigerian university system to meet global standards, adding that if the Ministers of Education and Labour had done what the House of Representatives has done, the strike would not have lingered up to a month.

“Our struggle, thank God the National Assembly is joining us, it’s for the educational system in Nigeria. We want to have a university in Nigeria where we have money students all over the world are paying so that the system will grow.

“That’s why we are in this struggle. We want to have a university where the remuneration is enough to attract lecturers from all over the world just as our people are going out.

“As we speak, we are having problem, we don’t notice it, we are creating so many universities but there are no good people, qualified people to teach in those universities because the good ones are leaving the country.

“We just put people there which is not good enough. We must create an environment, we are the giant of Africa and we must act like giant of Africa, we have people coming in droves, not we leaving. That’s why we are here.

“Mr Speaker, I want to sincerely thank you for your resilience, your intervention. Please let all of us work together, let’s put a beautiful end to this thing we have started so that every Nigerian will be proud that we have a University which we will be proud of.

“I want to appeal that in future, we should not allow strike to linger. Strike should not go beyond two days. If there was an earlier intervention, we wouldn’t have stayed more than two or three weeks on this strike. Strike happens all over the world, UK, US, all over, but they don’t allow it to last,” he added.

Earlier, Gbajabimila expressed hope that the strike would be called off in a matter of days as ASUU and the Federal Government has shifted grounds such as the provision of N470 billion for salaries and revitalisation in the 2023 budget.

He said: “This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long fought battle, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU, the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU.

“We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as the result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the road, save for dotting some “I”s and crossing some “T”s.

“We agreed with ASUU and government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the president twice. First time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some, and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr President. There was one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. The President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting, which we did on Friday after the budget.

“That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now, he would disclose whatever it is on Tuesday (today).

“But beyond that, the other several issues have been taken care of. We were able to make sure that what ASUU was asking for in terms of revitalisation, salary, there has been significant improvement, revitalisation has been provided for, in the budget. The salary structure has been looked at and there has been improvement as well.

“As you heard Mr President say during his budget presentation, he appealed to ASUU to go back to class and that a total of N470 billion has been included in the budget. Another important issue both ASUU and the office of the Accountant General and government have agreed is that they will work together and the peculiarities of UTAS that is required for the payment platform IPPIS, would sit together and the chairman, committee on tertiary education would also be part of that tripartite arrangement to include all those things that are required by ASUU in the IPPIS platform.

“I believe we have covered most of the thorny issues and it is basically, to put everything on paper and sign off and I believe if we had met yesterday and the papers had been drawn up, I am sure, ASUU would have called of the strike today (Monday).

“But we only just met behind closed doors now and so we have to draw up the agreement as I have stated to you, and hopefully in the next couple of days, of course ASUU has to get back to its bases as well, once that is agreed, I am very hopeful and very excited about the possibility or probability the strike would be called off in days,” Gbajabiamila added.