• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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BusinessDay

Despite rising hope, ASUU denies reported agreement to suspend strike

FG frustrating efforts to resolve issues – ASUU

Despite rising hope that the protracted strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will be called off soon, the union has denied news report that it agreed to call off the strike after the government reportedly increased its offer for Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) and funding for the revitalisation of public universities from N65 billion to N70 billion.

The union has been on strike for the past eight months, since March 2020.

Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU president, who spoke to BusinessDay on Friday after meeting with the government team led by Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, denied knowledge of any agreement to call off the strike, stressing that they only agreed that the union should convey government message to their organs and get back to government.

It was earlier reported that the university teachers agreed to call off the strike after the government pledged to pay N40 billion as the Earned Allowance and N30bn for the revitalisation of the university system, bringing the total amount to N70 billion. The government also
reportedly agreed to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 31.

According to the report, ASUU is expected to report the agreement to its organs and then communicate their decision to the government after which a date for the call-off of the strike would be announced.

The report, which quoted a source within the university union, said ASUU insisted that the agreement to call off the strike should not be announced until it has been approved by its members.

However, Ogunyemi told BusinessDay that he was not aware of that.

“All I know is that we had a meeting and we are going to report to our members. But I don’t know about suspension of strike,” he said.

A source in the Ministry of Labour and Employment told BusinessDay that after the meeting, Ngige, who described the meeting as “fruitful”, said the government made a proposal to ASUU which it would take back to its members.

“Many issues were discussed at the meeting including salary shortfall, the payment system and revitalisation of the university system. I am positive that all the issues would be resolved at our next meeting,” Ngige told reporters after the meeting.

Friday’s meeting was about the seventh time both sides have met to resolve the issues in contention since the university union embarked on strike on March 23.

After the meeting of last Friday, November 20, government agreed to exempt ASUU from the controversial Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and put the union on the Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System (GIFMIS) pending when ASUU’s preferred payment platform, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS), would be approved.

ASUU has consistently rejected IPPIS, stressing that it would erode the autonomy of the university system.