Tobias Sylvester
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has finally agreed to call off its eight-month-old strike after the Federal Government offered to pay the lecturers N70 billion.
The decision followed an eight-hours meeting with the government team led by Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, in Abuja, on Friday, November 27, 2020.
During the meeting, the government pledged to pay N40 billion as the Earned Allowance and N30bn for the revitalisation of the university system bringing the total payment to N70 billion.
The FG further agreed to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 31.
ASUU is expected to report the agreement to its organs and then communicate their decision to the government after which a date for the calling off of the strike would be announced.
A source, who spoke to Punch, said ASUU insisted that the agreement should not be announced until it has been approved by its members.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Ngige said the parley was fruitful, adding that the government made a proposal to ASUU which it would take back to its members.
“Many issues were discussed at the meeting including salary shortfall, the payment system and revitalisation of the university system. I am positive that all the issues would be resolved at our next meeting,” ASUU said.
The ASUU President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, simply said everything Ngige said was correct and declined further comment about the meeting with the FG.
This is coming a week after the government agreed to exempt ASUU members from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) pending the approval of their proposed payment system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS).
