ABUJA — ACADEMIC Staff Union of
Universities, ASUU, has described
as
speculative reports that the
strike
embarked upon by the union over the
inability of the Federal
Government to
implement the 2009 agreement
it
willinglyentered into with the union
would be called off this
Thursday.
National President of ASUU, Dr.
Nasir
Fagge, told Vanguard that he was
surprised to hear that the
union was
going to call off the strike on
Thursday
when the issues tabled before government had not been
resolved.
Faggae said: “There is nothing
like that
(suspending the strike). I am
also surprised to hear people say
that we
are going to call off the strike.
He said: “Our members have
made it
categorically clear what they want. This
meeting we had with
government on
Friday at the office of the
Secretary to
the Government of the Federation, SGF,
is just exploratory.
“We are trying to look at issues
holisticallyand see how we are
going to
address them. So assignments were
given to various people that
attended
the meeting and the
expectation is that
we will meet tomorrow (today), Monday
and look at theassignment
given and
also look at it on Thursday
again. “So, that is why I’m surprised
to hear
people say that we are going
to
suspend strike on Thursday.
The mandate of our members is
very clear.
So, we will wait andsee what
the
Monday and Thursday meetings
unfold and then we report back to
our
members.”
On how long it would take ASUU
leaders to convene a meeting
with its members after the meeting
with
government on Thursday, the
ASUU
boss said “we are in constant
consultation with our members, we
don’t really have problems with
that.
“After the meeting, we will
decide
when to link up with our members
depending upon what is placed
on
table on Thursday.”
Commenting on the speculation
that the union might suspend the
strike if
[vist na ijahero . Ne t]the
government met up to 50 per
cent
of the agreement, Faggae said the
union would prefer to get to
the bridge
before crossingit.
He commended the positive
disposition ofthe Joint Senate and House
of
Representatives Committee on
Education towards the
resolution of the
crisis. Fagge added: “For us, the
interaction
we have had with the Joint
Committee
clearly indicates that they are
concerned like other Nigerians”. “This is expected of the
representatives
of people. You see the problem
has
always been that the executive
arm of government does not really
hearken to
advise that are given on how
best to
address the problems on
education in this country.
“We are convinced as a union
that the
only thing the government can
really do
for Nigerians is to avail them of education.
“Once you are able to do that,
you will
see that people will be able to
generate
jobs and they will be able to take care
of themselves and contribute to
nation
building. So that is the
argument we
are placing on the table.”
more news @ http://fb.com/naijtalks