The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that it is prepared to immediately end its ongoing national strike provided the Federal Government approves the negotiated settlement.
The body began a strike on February 14 to emphasize its demands, which included paying members’ salaries via the suggested University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), as well as the government investing in the nation’s university infrastructure.
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ASUU President Professor Emmanuel Osodeke stated that the union is anticipating a favorable response from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
He said;
As far as ASUU is concerned, the strike can end tomorrow, we have finished the negotiations, let the government call us this night that we should come tomorrow and sign the agreement, we will be there.
Let government tell us they have finished testing the UTAS, we have accepted it. By tomorrow, we will call off the strike. We are finished (with negotiations).
We are just waiting, and challenging the government. When will they sign the agreement, and when will they accept UTAS? Those are the two questions we need to ask the Nigerian government.
The ASUU leader further charged that the Federal Government did not take the angry professors seriously, which he claimed was the cause of the protracted strike.
He added that the government had been delaying paying the salaries of the academics on strike for the previous five months and noted that the tactic employed to threaten the university staff members would not succeed.
The ASUU strike action reached its 140th day on Monday, with the union and the federal government unable to come to an agreement for the overall benefit of the students in Nigeria.
ASUU and the federal government have been at odds over the latter’s failure to uphold the agreement they made with the Union in 2009.
