The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, has suspended its three months old nationwide strike action and has directed varsity lecturers to resume duty from Friday, February 8.
The suspension was announced Thursday evening following the tenth meeting between the FG and ASUU since the commencement of the strike in Nov. 2018.
After the plenary led by the Labour Minister, Chris Ngige and ASUU President, Abiodun Ogunyemi, the parties signed a 7-point memorandum of action.
Earlier, Ngige noted that FG had resolved the eight contentious issues that led to the strike, explaining that N25 billion naira will be released for the revitalization of public universities.
He said visitation panels have been constituted and will commence work on March 2.
In his suspension speech, Ogunyemi said, " ASUU is strongly convinced that if academics fail to fight the cause of university education, the fate that befell public primary and secondary schools would soon become the lot of the public university system in Nigeria. "
He added, "As we have always argued, the last thing ASUU members love doing is to cause disruption in smooth intellectual engagements with colleagues, friends and students right on our university campuses.
He said nonetheless, the strike action has proven to be effective and the only language understood by the goverment.
"The proclivity of the Nigerian ruling class, irrespective of which wing of the insensitive stock they belong, must be continually be tracked, engaged and resisted by all people of goodwill," he said.
ASUU embarked on an indefinite strike on November 4, 2018, following government’s failure to implement the agreement reached with the union in November 2016.
FG-ASUU Memorandum of Actio as presented by Ogunyemi
1. In addition to the N20 billion for 2018, the sum of N25 billion only would be released in April/May 2019, after which government would resume full implementation of the MoU of 2013.
2. Part-payment of the outstanding arrears of the earned academic allowances; defraying the balance up to 2018 in 4 tranches within 36 months; and mainstreaming further payments of EAA into the annual budgets beginning from 2019 budget.
3. PICA verification and the release of the arrears of salary shortfall at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, not later than 15th February 2019.
4. Strengthening the Consultative Committee on State-owned Universities (CCSOU), inaugurated on Monday, 28th January, 2019 to look into the issues of proliferation, underfunding and governance to consistently deliver on its mandate.
5. Payment of the outstanding EAA arrears of all eligible staff in the University of Ilorin, especially the loyal ASUU members whose appointments were illegally terminated by today, 7th February, 2019.
6. Acknowledgement and appreciation of Government for facilitating the release of the final letter of approval for the granting of operational license to NUPEMCO.
7. Visitation to all Federal Universities would commence tentatively by 11th March, 2019.
8. Provision of documented guidelines on procedures and roles of parties in the process of renegotiating FGN-ASUU Agreement of 2009 which would commence not later than 18th February 2019 and end by Friday 29th March, 2019.
Based on the initial proposals from Government, the Union made extensive consultations through its various organs. The final level of consultation was the meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) which took place 6th
-7th February, 2019. NEC resolved that: Following a careful review of the report of engagements with the Federal
Government on proposals for addressing all outstanding in the 2013 MoU and 2017 MoA, NEC resolved that the current strike action by the Union should be suspended conditionally with effect from 12.01 a.m on Friday 8th February, 2019.
However, should Government fail to fulfill its part of the agreement as reflected in the 2019 Memorandum of Action, ASUU shall resume its suspended strike action as the Union deems necessary.
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