The Academic Staff Union of Universities on
Wednesday said the ongoing strike by
university lecturers would be suspended
within 24 hours once the new resolutions
reached with President Goodluck Jonathan on
November 4 were accepted.
The union, however, described the statement
credited to the Minister of Education, Nyesom
Wike, that ASUU was making new outrageous
demands as “untrue and absolute lie.”
The union said it asked President Jonathan to
facilitate the endorsement of resolutions
reached with him and signed by high ranking
government official preferably the Attorney-
General of the Federation but not a
permanent secretary.
ASUU said a representative of the body
including the President of Nigeria Labour
Congress, Abdulwahid Omar, would stand as
witnesses.
The union said it wanted the N200 billion
agreed upon as 2013 revitalisation fund for
public universities to be warehoused with the
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and disbursed
to the benefiting universities.
ASUU’s position was conveyed by the union
National Treasurer, Dr. Ademola Aremu, while
speaking with The Nation in an interview in
Ibadan on Wednesday.
He said the union appreciated the
intervention of President Jonathan but
noticed that some of the resolutions reached
with the President were not included in the
letter sent to the union.
According to him, the supervising Minister of
Education was economical with the truth by
not telling Nigerians that apart from the N30
billion earned allowances released for
university staff, the government was yet to
release the N100 billion claimed to have been
released.
