ASUU May End Strike Within Next Two Weeks

There have emerged indications that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may call of its ongoing strike within next two weeks.

This information appeared after a Thursday closed-door meeting with the ASUU members and Nigerian Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, in Abuja.

The parties did not disclose the details of the meeting, which lasted for almost two hours.

However, ASUU National President, Dr. Nasir Faggae, told State House Correspondents that the union would make its position known after the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting scheduled for Saturday, September 21.

In turn, the supervising Minister of Education, Nyesom Wikehad assured Nigerians that students would soon return to school as the FG stands ready to shift ground.

An insider source who wanted to say anonymous, disclosed that going by the new offers made by the FG, the strike might end within the next two weeks because the FG had agreed to release fund to revitalize the university system.

“The meeting went well, the vice-president made some new offers that were different from what was on ground before. For instance, the Federal Government had agreed to start the injection of revitalisation fund into the university system starting with N100bn this year and N150bn in 2014 and this will continue until the university system is solid enough to stand,” the source said.

It will be reminded that ASUU has been on an indefinite strike since June 30. The lecturers protest against the FG’s failure to honour a 2009 agreement signed between it and ASUU in 2009 pertaining to issues of university funding and improvement of infrastructure in the sector.