ASUU suspends strike conditionally

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its three-month old strike, with effect from midnight today.

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi announced the suspension after a two-hour closed door meeting with the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen Chris Ngige, on Thursday in Abuja.

ASUU had embarked on
strike on November 4, 2018 over its demands for revitalisation of
universities, academic earned allowances, issuance of Universities
Pension Management Company and other issues.

According to him, after government proposals for addressing all
outstanding issues in the 2013 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and
2017 Memorandum of Action (MoA), NEC resolved to suspend the strike.

“The strike is suspended conditionally with effect from 12.01 a.m on Friday, February 8.

“However, should government fail to fulfil its part of the agreement
as reflected in the 2019 Memorandum of Action, ASUU shall resume its
suspended strike as the union deems it necessary,” he said.

In his address, the minister said eight areas of disagreements were discussed and resolved by the two parties.

According to him, we have dealt with all the eight contending issues and some of them have been implemented.

“ASUU has license for the Universities Pension Management Company on January 28, 2018.

“On the issue of salary shortfall in the universities, the Federal
Government has released N16billion, out of which N15.384billion is for
universities, while the rest is for other tertiary institutions.

“The Vice-Chancellors have acknowledged the receipt of the funds.

“We also have the issue of a committee to liaise with state
government-owned universities, ASUU and the Federal Government through
the Ministry of Education. That committee was inaugurated two weeks ago.

“The visitation panel has been constituted and will commence work on March 2, 2019.

“On the issue of earned allowances, the Federal Government has
released N20billion for the payment to all categories of university
staff.

“For the earned academic allowance, the Federal Government has
released N25billion and for the revitalization fund, a total of
N25billion will be released in the period between April and May 2019.

“The Federal Government will also resume full implementation of the
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) entered into in 2019, ” he said.

Ngige commended ASUU for its patience and understanding.