President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, has given hope that the lingering strike of the union could be called off today.
Prof. Osedeke, assured that the union is willing to call of the ongoing strike action if the federal government meets its demands at the end of Wednesday meeting.
The ASUU President stated this while appearing on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on Monday night.
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He revealed that the government had not entered a negotiation with the union even though a committee led by Prof. Nimi Briggs submitted recommendations to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu.
DAILY REPORT recalls that the Minister was given a two-week ultimatum by President Muhammadu Buhari to end the strike on August 1, but that has not materialised as the ultimatum expired over two weeks ago.
Osedeke, who faulted the government for using the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System the union rejected to siphon huge sums of money, said;
“If we go into that meeting tomorrow and the government says, what you have bargained for, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off.”
‘’We have been shouting all along that IPPIS is a fraud, we have told them that for 16 years they siphoned our money with IPPIS, they punished our members because of it. Now, they know, some foreign bodies forced it on the people.’’
The ongoing ASUU strike commenced on February 14, 2022, after the Federal Government refused to meet some of its demands including, the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the UTAS payment platform for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers.
More than six months after, the union insists that it demands must be met before the strike would be called off.
