BY SEGUN OLUGBILE AND KAMARUDEEN OGUNDELE

Indications have emerged that the  Academic Staff Union of Universities may call off the over four-month-old strike on Thursday.

Barring a last-minute change, the National Executive Committee of ASUU will meet on Wednesday night to consider the position of the congresses of the over 50 public universities on the offer made by the Federal government to revamp the institutions.

The  union met with  a Federal Government team led by President Goodluck Jonathan last Tuesday in Abuja.

The  ASUU leadership, after briefing the zonal coordinators  on  the offer, had directed the local branches   to organise  congress meetings between Friday last week and Tuesday (tomorrow).

This is to enable all the lecturers to make input into the action the union would take after its NEC meeting on Thursday.

However, feelers from most universities that had organised their congresses revealed that ASUU  would suspend the strike after the  Thursday NEC meeting.

In  some universities, including the Obafemi Awolowo University and the Lagos State University that have scheduled their congress meetings for Monday (today),  union leaders and lecturers expressed hope that the strike would end this week.

Also, some top officials of the union in some of the nine zones of ASUU said even though they were not happy with the plan by the government to inject N220bn yearly into the public universities for the next five years, they were pleased that a commitment had been obtained by the union.

Though the Ibadan Zonal Coordinator of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Adesola, confirmed that the NEC meeting would hold on Wednesday, he did not say whether the strike would be called off or not.

“Yes, the NEC will hold on Wednesday evening but ASUU has a process which we are going to follow. NEC reserves the right to call off the strike after due consultation with members and this is why congresses are being called in all the chapters of the union. Please, wait till after the congress,” he told one of our correspondents on the telephone.

But another  source said, “Our NEC meeting will hold between Wednesday night and Thursday. Our chapters have started holding meetings to discuss the Federal Government’s offer. This is to allow input from all the lecturers. We have to carry them along to avoid disunity since there are moves by some elements to infiltrate us.”

Another source told one of our correspondents that some members had expressed mixed feelings about the Federal Government’s  new offer based on its refusal to honour  past  agreements.

“The radicals among us are  sceptical about this latest offer. They do  not believe that government will respect the agreement. Their view is  that government only wants  to deceive the union to call off the strike before it will jettison it.”

A top official of the union,  who confirmed the fears,  told one of  our correspondents that although members’ opinions at the zonal congresses were divided over the government’s offer, the majority still decided to give  the government the benefit of the doubt.

He also said that  the majority opinion was that the review of the agreement which was supposed to hold this year should be postponed till next year in the interest of peace.

 The official added, “Members were persuaded because President Goodluck Jonathan personally met with the union. They felt since the President was involved in the negotiation this time around, the government would not say that it was arm-twisted to make the offer.

“This is the problem we are having with the 2009 agreement. By now we should be talking about a review but we are still having troubles with implementation.

“Although feelers across the zones are that we should call off the strike, we are going to put down the government offer in black and white and make it public so that nobody accuses us tomorrow  of  asking for too much.”

Some universities are expected to hold their congresses on Monday (today) to discuss the outcome of the zonal congresses held at nine centres across the country last week.

A source at the meeting  between the government and ASUU   told one of our  correspondents  that the government after a long debate agreed to inject N220bn yearly for the next five years beginning from 2014.

He had said, “The meeting should be the longest that we have ever had on this crisis but I can tell you that both parties were frank all through the discussions. The parties also showed commitment towards ending the crisis. The President in particular showed that he was serious about ending the strike and that was why he offered to release over N1tn to the universities in the next five years.

“The money will be released on a yearly basis at N220bn per annum beginning from 2014. For the outgoing year, the Federal Government will only release N100bn and this has been processed.

“In order to show commitment to this deal, the money will be kept at the Central Bank of Nigeria  and will be released on a quarterly basis to the universities. So, there won’t be any problem about funding the deal.”

The source added that the National Universities Commission and the Trade Union Congress would be joint guarantors of  the new agreement while the Minister of Education would be the implementation officer.

He said  that the  government  also agreed, among other things, to revamp the public universities by ensuring that all the issues that always lead to strike were dealt with once and for all.
http://www.punchng.com/news/ASUU-set-to-suspend-strike-this-week/

Hmmm

We have been hearing that ASUU.keep your strike tight man pikin want to hustle for Christmas

Watery story

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O men no be small o dz chick is hottttttttt....
Controversy do u stay in ph?

Bad guys currently on this thread!!!

Runs from the thread

mascot87: @Controversy(f), Please are you engaged or married?If non of the two, I will like to marry you, no be joke o.I am already in love with you,quote me pls, say something positive,haaaaaaaaaa,I don dey go crazy ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooöooooooöo,help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . if you no give me positive response ,you may not see my moniker on NL again meaning ''I have committed suicide''what??I love you

bros u get mind o! na controversy u wan marry? as women take plenty reach. u no fear the name?

We ar heared a enough of all this strike stories b/w federal govt nd ASUU.Let them do their mind.

We hv heard a enough of this ASUU strike with th federal govt.ASUU should do their mind.

FG is not even talking abt ASUP.... Does it mean we are not in important like our ASUU counterpart

Jonathan Jo naa taan

This week abi. ........still waiting

Has ther conditions set by ASUU to the FG been met?

lets wait and see

ASUU Thank You

ASSU ft FG - Baby Oya Pull Over.

Old story...

Baba madman ni bobo yemi mylover yi mehn

Got this in my mail this morning, I pray this news is positive cos person brain don depreciate finish

Ds gal go ccause controversy here oh cos me sef wan login into ha innermost part oh

mascot87:
hey hey hey guy, no let me vex o ,why u wan be my rival na? I go break bottle for person head o.Controversy,abeg no mind that guy o, na me love u from the medulla in my brain to the yansh of my heart.iygn19,you better take time, what do you know about love. I will kill you o

ameeennn . But them for leave january we kukuma start na.... Na wa 4 them o.. Good sha..

donmix: FG is not even talking abt ASUP.... Does it mean we are not in important like our ASUU counterpart

Yes