ASUU strike: Buhari to resolve ‘No work, no pay’ issue

ASUU strike: Buhari to resolve ‘No work, no pay’ issue

The 8-month-old nationwide strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continues as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed optimism that the strike will soon be called off. The Speaker who spoke during the brief meeting with the ASUU delegation at the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

The 8-month-old nationwide strike embarked on by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) continues as the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, expressed optimism that the strike will soon be called off.

The Speaker who spoke during the brief meeting with the ASUU delegation at the National Assembly complex, Abuja, applauded the striking lecturers and President for taking necessary steps toward resolving the crisis in the interest of Nigerian students.

While expressing optimism that the nationwide strike will be called off soon, Hon. Gbajabiamila said: “This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long-fought battle, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU.

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“We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as the result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the of the road. Save for dotting some ‘I’s and crossing some ‘T’s.

“We agreed with ASUU and the government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the President twice.

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“First time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr President.

“There was one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. And the President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting which we did on Friday after the budget.

“That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now, and that he would disclose whatever it is tomorrow, Tuesday which is tomorrow. On that one remainder issues.

“But beyond that, the other several issues have been taken care of. We were able to make sure that what ASUU was asking for in terms of revitalisation, salary, that there has been significant improvement, revitalisation has been provided for in the budget. We made sure of that.

“The salary structure has been looked at and there has been improvement as well, and we made sure of that. As you heard Mr President say during his budget presentation. He appealed to ASUU to go back to class and that N470 billion total has been included in the budget.

“The issue which was another important issue both ASUU and the office of the Accountant General and government have agreed that they will work together and the peculiarities of UTAS that is required for the payment platform IPPIS, they would sit down together and the chairman committee on tertiary education would also be part of that tripartite sit-down arrangement to include all those things that are required by ASUU in the IPPIS platform.

“I believe we have covered ground, covered most of the thorny issues and it is basically, what we have agreed with ASUU is basically to put everything on paper and sign off and I believe if we had met yesterday and the papers had been drawn up.

“ASUU, I am sure would have called off the strike today. But we only just met behind closed doors now and so we have to draw up the agreement as I have stated to you, and hopefully in the next couple of days, of course, ASUU has to get back to its bases as well.

“Once that is agreed, I am very hopeful and very excited about the possibility or probability the strike would be called off in a manner of days.

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“I want to thank the Union for having come this far and having reported at every moment that we have called them. Even today’s meeting was called just today and at such short notice, you were here and we have met in my office and I believe we have concluded positively. We did this for the sake of our students and children.

“And I hope it would be a thing of the past. I thank you very much, ASUU. I also thank Nigerians for their patience, and the students, having endured these many months. But I believe that this has hopefully come to an end in a matter of days,” the Speaker noted.

On his part, ASUU President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke who applauded the House intervention, disclosed that the final resolution will be taken by the National Executive Council meeting after signing relevant documents on Tuesday.

“We have actually met briefly in the Speaker’s office and looked at all issues and he briefed us. And we have taken note of what they have covered. But my union you know we operate bottom up, we don’t take decisions on their behalf without having their consent.

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“So, we have agreed that between now and tomorrow we are going to get some documentation signed that we can take to our members and we will do that as quickly as possible in the interest of all of us Nigerians and the students so that this thing can be resolved as quickly as possible.

“From what we have seen today, for the first time since this our action started, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Because this is the first time we are having such thing and we hope this time around there will not be any attempt person or group to create something that will also make us run into anything again. We hope that this will be the final in the interest of our children.

“Our struggle, thank God the National Assembly is joining us is for the educational system in Nigeria. We want to have a university in Nigeria where we have to get money from students all over the world and pay in hard currency as we pay so that system will grow. That is why we are in this struggle.

“We want to have a university where the remuneration is enough to attract lecturers from all over the world just as our people are going out. As we speak today, we are having problem, we don’t notice it, we are creating so many universities but there are no good people, qualified people to teach in those universities but the good ones are leaving we just put people there which is not good enough.

“We must create environmental, we are the giant of Africa and we must act like giant of Africa, we ship has people coming in droves not we leaving. That’s why we are here.

“So, honourable Speaker I want to sincerely thank you for this your resilience, your intervention. Please let all of us working together and the members of the House of Representatives working together, let’s put a beautiful end to this thing we have started so that every Nigerian will be proud that we have University which we will be proud of.

“Once again we thank, also extend our appreciation to the President for intervening and we do hope that this will be the last one.

“I want to appeal that in future, we should not allow strike to linger. Strike should not go beyond two days. If the way the National Assembly has intervened, if you have done that long ago from the beginning, or those who are in charge of (Ministries of) Labour and Education have done exactly this, we will not be where we are today. We would not have stayed more than two or three weeks in this strike. Strike is all over the world, UK, US, all over but they don’t allow it to last.

“We hope that working together in the next few days we will put an end to this particular imbroglio in the Nigerian educational system,” Professor Osodeke opined.