ASUU NEC meets to decide on three-month-old strike

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will meet this week to consider the outcome of the referendum conducted by the various branches.
The referendum was to consider the Federal Government’s new offer of N25 billion from the N50 billin demanded by the union to suspend the three-month-old strike which has crippled academic activities in various universities in the country.
Various chapters of ASUU on Tuesday concluded the referendum which had three issues for determination: suspension of the strike without conditions, a continuation of the strike and suspension of the three-month-old strike with conditions.
In one of their meetings, ASUU demanded N50 billion as a condition to suspend the on-going strike and at the last negotiation, it was learnt that the Federal Government proposed to release N25 billion which many branches felt was not enough.
Before the referendum by the various ASUU branches, the zonal coordinators briefed their chairmen on the outcome of the last meeting with the Federal government team and the directive for the branches to make inputs.
The national leadership of ASUU gave the branches between Monday and Tuesday to conduct the referendum and the results would be debated at NEC meeting this week in Abuja.
Some of the chairmen confirmed the directive of the national body on the referendum based on the new offer from the Federal government but they declined to reveal the outcome of the exercise.
According to a national officer, each branch complied with the directive and called on Congress to vote on the referendum and the results would be discussed at the NEC meeting in Abuja.
Some of the branches, it was learnt, were not pleased with the government proposal to pay N25billion instead of the N50billion demanded by the union. They want the money release before the suspension of the strike.
ASUU twitter handle confirmed that it was consulting its zonal members and would give feedback to the government team led by Senator Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment on Thursday, February 7, 2019.
His words: “Senator Ngige has brought a new proposal to the table and we are going to reconsider it though it is not up to the ₦50 billion we requested. The ASUU president is assuring Nigerians that the union will definitely have something to tell the people after its next meeting on Thursday.
Prof Ogunyemi says “on the Federal Government’s claim that it had released the sum of N15.4 billion as part of the shortfall in the payment of salaries of lecturers, we are yet to receive it,” the Twitter handle added.

In a related development, the Federal government has met one of the demands of ASUU; the twitter handle disclosed that the union recently received the certificate of operation for Nigerian University Pension Management Company (NUPEMCO) from the National Pension Commission.
ASUU members on November 4, 2018, commenced an indefinite strike to force the government to demonstrate a commitment to implementing the 2009 FG/ASUU agreement, as well as the resulting 2013 MoU, for the rapid transformation of Nigeria’s public universities for improved efficiency, infrastructural development, and global competitiveness.