A
crucial National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the Academic Staff
Union of Universities (ASUU) is going on to decide on offers made by
the Federal Government team last week to persuade its striking members
to return to work.
Ahead of the NEC meeting, various zones of
ASUU had met also to consider the offer as well as inputs from the
various branches for presentation to the NEC.
ASUU had embarked
on an indefinite strike on August 14, accusing government of failure to
redeem the terms of agreement signed in 2009 and Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) endorsed by both parties in 2012.
One of the
zonal coordinators of ASUU told Saturday Sun: “I must state that the
offer from the Federal Government is a far cry from our members’
expectations. Let us see what comes out of this emergency NEC meeting.
Many of our members are not happy with the way government is handling
our demands. It is up to NEC to take a position on the on-going strike.
Our members are prepared for a long strike, but it depends on the
government.”
He debunked a claim by the Education Minister that
ASUU would call off the strike this week, saying, “we didn’t promise the
minister anything. We told the government team that we are going to
consult with our members on what government has offered”.
He
described the likely outcome of NEC meeting, as 50-50, saying members
wanted to see concrete evidence that government was serious about
meeting the demands. The minister, Mallam Adamu Adamu, had, admitted
that “government has not fulfilled its part of the bargain, even though
we are unhappy that ASUU went on this strike without following due
process and giving us good notice. We realised that we promised
something and we didn’t fulfill it.
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