Breaking News: ASUU Calls off its 5 Months Old Strike

Posted by African Examiner Ayo Balogun, Featured, Latest Headlines, News Monday, December 16th, 2013

Ayo Balogun, Lagos

The Academic Staff Union of University, ASUU, has called off its five months old strike.

The lecturers in public universitie began an indefinite strike over Federal Government’s refusal to implement agreement reached with ASUU on July 1, 2013 to press home its demand.

The National Executive Council of ASUU met in Minna, Niger State on Monday and decided to call off the strike after the government had met parts of their demands.

After a marathon meeting at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, the lecturers decided to allow peace to reign and suspended the strike to pave for resumption in the various universities across the nation.

Several meeting held between ASUU and the Federal Government had ended in fiasco as both sides disagreed on issues until the Federal Government was made to sign agreement with the union to implement the demand it reached with them.

The union had embarked on strike because the government had reneged on the agreement it reached with ASUU before the lecturers suspended a similar action in February 2012.

ASUU National President, Dr. Isa Fagge had said in July that “The Federal Government has refused to implement some of the issues contained in a 2009 agreement it had with us,” adding that the government had also reneged on the Memorandum of Understanding it entered into with the union in December 2011.

“Before now, there has been this issue of the implementation of the key issues contained in the 2009 agreement we entered into with the Federal Government. We have had several meetings and deliberations to let government understand why these issues must be resolved but it is like the more we meet and deliberate, the messier the issue gets.

“One of the issues that needed to be addressed was basically that of the academic earned allowance. This earned allowance, and other issues, had dragged on until government then agreed to write an MOU with the union. But as we speak, there has been nothing to show that government was committed to an MOU it willingly wrote to better the university sector,” he had said in July.