The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has stated that the union will not go on strike provided the Federal Government implements the agreements reached within the next two weeks.
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Monday.
ASUU had threatened to go on strike over the failure to implement agreements agreed with the federal government.
On June 26, Minister of Education Prof. Tahir Mamman invited the union to a conference to discuss the remaining concerns impacting universities and avert the planned walkout.
Osodeke mentioned that none of the agreements reached with the federal government had been implemented.
“At the meeting called by the Minister of Education, we agreed that after two weeks, we would meet to see the progress the government has made.
“We will also see what we will do next if the government fails to implement the agreements reached.
“The meeting in the next two weeks is to see what they have done, which will inform our decision,” he said.
The ASUU president said some of the demands included the non-implementation of the 2009 re-negotiated agreements.
He stated that the agreements had been pending for more than six years and that the administration had yet to implement them.
Osodeke stated that the academic allowances owed to their members had also accrued for more than six years and nothing had been done about it.
On the topic of the revitalization fund, he stated that they decided in the Needs Assessment Report to raise N200 billion every year for five years.
“There has only been one payment since 2013. We need revitalization funding to bring our universities up to par so that we can attract students and lecturers from outside the country,” he stated.
Osodeke went on to say that the government had failed to put an end to the proliferation of institutions and that many new universities were being allowed to operate without the necessary funding.
