ASUU: Why we have not called off Strike

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has expressed that its members will resume when the federal government implements the offers it made to the union.

According to the President of the union, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi in an interview, he said the government was yet to release the withheld salaries of some of its members.

He noted that despite the latest offer from the government’s negotiating team, none of the offers made had been implemented.

The government, in its latest offers to ASUU leadership, pledged to pay N40 billion as Earned Allowance and N30 billion for the revitalisation of the university system, bringing the total payment to N70 billion. The government also agreed to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 2020.

“We are still consulting but certainly before the end of this week we will report to the minister the findings and feedback from our members, Prof Ogunyemi said

“The offers people are talking about are proposals that have timeless and some of these things are expected to have been happening. If those things they promised with the timeline can happen before we conclude our consultation I think the process will go smoother.

“A concrete example is the payment of our members’ salaries which have not been paid. If people are not paid I don’t think anybody will be willing to go back to work and other things that have timeline that we expect government to implement.

“You don’t expect people, after eight months, to go back to the classrooms on empty stomach. That is where we are.

“Before the end of this new week we will get back to government but we keep on telling them each time they contact us that they (government) should fulfill their own part of the bargain, things that have timelines.”