The president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has pledged that the strike, which has been going on for seven months, will end soon.
On Monday in Abuja, at a meeting with the House leadership, Osodeke made the pledge.
From what the union has seen at the meeting, he said, there is hope, and the union is hoping that this time around no one will try to cause problems that will cause the union to hit a snag.
He expressed hope that the House’s leadership would intervene for the last time on behalf of the students and explained that ASUU’s fight was for Nigeria’s higher education system.
He predicted that the strike would terminate in the next days. We’d like to set up a system where the pay is sufficient to entice instructors from all over the globe.
He voiced concern over the exodus of talented professors from Nigeria and advocated for the country’s universities to be compensated in hard currencies through the enrollment of international students.
We must always remember that we are Africa’s mighty juggernaut. We appreciate the speaker’s time and effort, and I believe we can all work together to make Nigerians proud of their educational institutions.
He claimed that the National Assembly’s failure to intervene sooner would have allowed the strike to continue for much longer than its current seven months.
Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, said that the intervention by the leadership of the House was fruitful, and that the meeting with President Femi Gbajabiamila had far-reaching consequences.
On October 11, he said, Buhari would announce his decision to the union and the public. He also said that the House’s leadership had met all of ASUU’s demands, including a revitalization plan and increased funding for salaries. In response to ASUU’s demand, he claimed that N470 billion had been allocated in the upcoming 2023 budget.
UTAs are no longer a problem because the government and ASUU have agreed to sit down and negotiate so that the IPPIS payment platform fully accommodates all of ASUU’s unique needs.
That’s pretty much what we agreed upon, and I think we’ve covered all the bases here. If ASUU had called off the strike today, or even in the following couple of days, classes would have resumed normally.
We appreciate ASUU’s prompt response each time we’ve reached out to them, and there’s a good chance that the strike won’t go forward after all. Our previous meeting in my office went quite well. He explained that the reason they did it was for the sake of their kids.