The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its ongoing two-week warning strike following a marathon National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held overnight in Abuja.
ASUU National President, Prof. Chris Piwuna, announced the decision at a press briefing on Wednesday, saying the meeting, which ended around 4:00 a.m., reviewed the government’s latest response to the union’s demands.
Piwuna said the union opted to suspend the strike after useful engagements with government representatives on the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, though he noted that more progress was still needed.
We’ve had useful engagements with representatives of the government to consider the response to the draft renegotiation of the 2009 agreements. However, we are definitely not where we were prior to the commencement of the strike, he said.
According to him, ASUU acknowledged the government’s return to the negotiation table and decided to reciprocate the efforts of students, parents, and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who intervened in the impasse.
Consequently, NEC resolved to suspend the warning strike to reciprocate the efforts of well-meaning Nigerians, he added.
ASUU had embarked on the strike on October 13 over the federal government’s failure to meet several outstanding demands, including the conclusion of the renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement, payment of withheld three and a half months’ salaries, revitalisation of public universities, and an end to the alleged victimisation of lecturers in LASU, Prince Abubakar Audu University, and FUTO.
Other demands include the payment of outstanding 25-35% salary arrears, four years’ worth of promotion arrears, and the release of withheld third-party deductions such as cooperative contributions and union check-off dues.
