The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu has said the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU may end this week. The Minister disclosed this during a briefing with reporters on the proliferation of illegal institutions in the country, at the weekend in Abuja.
Malam Adamu said: “Perhaps by next week I hope the ASUU strike will be over.”
However, when contacted, the ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said the union was still consulting on whether to end the strike or not. According to him, the union wants to take stock of what government have promised.
He said: “All I can say, for now, is that we are still consulting. We need to take stock of government’s promises in terms of aspects that have been fulfilled and what is left. We hope to get back to them in the coming week.”
He was however hopeful that a resolution would be reached when ASUU and the FG would be meeting during the week.
According to him, while progress had been made in two areas of discussion, the government had yet to convince ASUU that it is ready to deal with the issue of the infrastructure revitalisation fund of N220bn.
Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, had earlier on Saturday, said that the Federal Government’s claim that it released N163bn to settle part of the demands of the union was misleading.
He stated that it is the university administration that receive and spend all the money coming into the university. ASUU doesn’t receive money from government and doesn’t spend it.