PRESIDENT of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, on Monday applauded the intervention of the leadership of the House of Representatives towards the peaceful resolution of the eight-month-old nationwide strike action.
Professor Osodeke who made the observation during a conciliation meeting held at the instance of the Speaker, Honorable Femi Gbajabiamila, affirmed that it was the first time such meeting had been held since the industrial action started, hence expressed optimism that the union is “seeing light at the end of the tunnel.”
The ASUU president, however, observed that the final resolution would be taken at the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting after signing relevant documents today.
He said, “We actually met briefly in the Speaker’s office, looked at all issues and he briefed us, and we have taken note of what they have covered. But my union, we operate bottom-up; we don’t take decisions on their behalf without having their consent.
“We have agreed that be- tween now and tomorrow, we are going to get some documentations signed that we can take to our members and we will do that as quickly as possible.
“From what we have seen today, for the first time since our action started, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
“This is the first time we are having such a thing and we hope this time around, there will not be any attempt by a person or group to create something that will also make us run into anything again. We hope that this will be the final in the interest of our children.
“Our struggle, thank God the National Assembly is joining us, is for the educational system in Nigeria.
“So, honourable Speaker, I want to sincerely thank you for your resilience, your intervention.” Speaking earlier, Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila expressed optimism that the strike will soon be called off.
The Speaker who spoke during the brief meeting with the ASUU delegation at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, applauded the striking lecturers and president for taking necessary steps toward resolving the crisis in the interest of Nigerian students.
While expressing optimism that the nationwide strike would be called off soon, Gbajabiamila said, “This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long-fought battle, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago, the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU.
“We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as a result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the end of the road, save for dotting some ‘I’s and crossing some ‘T’s.
“We agreed with ASUU and government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the President twice. First time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr President.
“There was one sticking issue which was the issue of ‘no work no pay’. And the President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting, which we did on Friday af- ter the budget.
“The other several issues have been taken care of. We were able to make sure that what ASUU was asking for in terms of revitalization, salary, that there has been significant improvement. Revitalization has been provided for in the budget. We made sure of that.
“The salary structure has been looked at and there has been improvement as you heard Mr President say during his budget presentation. He appealed to ASUU to go back to class and that N470 billion has been included in the budget.
“Another important issue both ASUU and the office of the Accountant General and government have agreed is that they will work together and the peculiarities of UTAS that is required for the payment platform IPPIS, they would sit down together and the chairman Committee on Tertiary Education would also be part of that tripartite sit-down arrangement to include all those things that are required by ASUU in the IPPIS platform.”
Meanwhile, earlier, before the meeting, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, had expressed optimism that the lingering strike will be called off in days and not weeks.
He stated this at the launch of a book written by Lanre Arogundade in Lagos.
Falana, who was the chairman on the occasion, stated that it is likely that the strike will be concluded outside the courtroom. He said some concerned stakeholders, including leadership of the House of Representatives, are working to ensure that the strike is ended.
