ASUU To Call Off Strike On Wednesday

The ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may be called off tomorrow. To this end, the leadership of the union is billed to meet at the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada, to review the strike and outcome of dialogue with the Federal Government. ASUU, last week, met with the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Rufai in Abuja to resolve grey areas in the contentious ASUU agreement. The meeting could not produce the desired results as the lecturers turned down the minister’s pleas to end the strike. Before the meeting, Senate, as part of moves to get ASUU to call of the strike, passed a bill elongating the retirement age of lecturers from 60 to 70 years.www.mannastores.com

The increase in the retirement was contained in
ASUU’s agreement signed by government some
years ago. Other items in the agreement include revamping the decaying infrastructure in universities, increased research funding and enhanced emoluments.
Although the Federal Government signed the
agreement, it had refused to honour it, leading to
recurring strikes by ASUU. Speaking to Daily Sun, an official of ASUU who pleaded anonymity revealed that significant inroads had been made in resolving the disagreement with government. He said: “We are almost at the end of the strike. Unless anything crops up we hope to call off the strike on Tuesday (tomorrow). “We will meet at the University of Abuja on that Tuesday and I think the meeting will agree to end the strike.”
Asked if the Federal Government had accepted to
implement the union’s agreement, he replied:
“What I can tell you is that we have made some strides. We have a minister who, to some extent, is
not playing politics with the agreement unlike what we had in the past.”