‘It Won’t Take 24 Hours’ – ASUU Speaks On Calling Off Strike With FG’s Instant Signature

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has said it would not take more than 24 hours for the federal government to sign to their latest minimum demand and the lingering strike would be called off.

ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, revealed this while speaking during the National Town Hall Meeting on Tertiary Education tagged: ‘The Locked Gates of our Citadels – A National Emergency’ held in Abuja today, Naija News reports.

According to Osodoke, the association has negotiated and agreed that the federal government should sign to its recent resolve and the seven-month-old strike would end.

Osodeke stressed that ASUU is more than willing to reopen schools.

He, however, said this could only be achieved if concrete agreements were reached with the Federal Government.

He said: “On all these issues, we have given the government a minimum that we can accept, but they have not responded on the issue of revitalization, on the issue of earned allowance and on issues that we have all discussed.

”We negotiated and agreed that they should sign and this is very simple, not more than one day.

”On UTAS and IPPIS, we say release the report of the test you did and let’s look at the one who came first and take it as we agreed.

”So we have given them the minimum we want and we have to come down and they can do it in one day if there is a will,” Osodeke reiterated.

He furthered his argument by saying if the government loves the country, the students and their parents, they should immediately come to the table with the union to resolve the lingering issues in one day, which he considered as simple.

“Just as we did in 2014, they should come and ensure that we do that, we can even have the meeting openly so that Nigeria will see what we are discussing,” Osodeke said.

Court Cannot Force Lecturers To Teach Students In The Class

Reacting to the recent case suit filed against ASUU by the federal government, Osodeke said it is unfortunate that their disagreement was dragged to court.

He, however, said that suing the union was not an option as it would further worsen the situation of the students and tertiary education in the country.

According to the ASUU president, if the court forces the lecturers to return to school, they won’t force them to teach with open minds.

Osodeke noted that the students would definitely be at the receiving end.

He commended the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Pro-Chancellors for stepping in to resolve the issues. He, therefore, called on parents and students to appeal to the government to do the needful so that the strike would come to an end once and for all, rather than attacking the union.