ASUU may call off strike on Friday, holds NEC meeting on Thursday

Barring any last minutes change of plan, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may announce the suspension of the eight-month-old strike action in compliance with the appeal court directive that the lecturers called off the strike within seven days.

Accordingly, the emergency National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU is expected to hold tomorrow (Thursday), to ratify the resolutions of the state congresses held nationwide today.

ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke confirmed that the emergency NEC meeting would be held at the ASUU Headquarters in Abuja to harvest inputs from the branch congresses.

It was not clear if the strike would be called off tomorrow after the emergency NEC meeting, but a source said the meeting might last into the night of Thursday and as such the strike would be called off on Friday morning.

Another source gave a strong indication that the strike would be called off on Thursday, which is the seventh day from last Friday when the appellate court gave ASUU seven days to call off the strike or lose the right of appeal.

According to the source, the voting by the zonal congresses was for formality as the Union has been properly advised by its lead counsel, a human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), especially on the danger of going against the appeal court directive.

Falana had also disclosed on Monday that the union would call off the strike in a matter of days.

The lecturers are also pleased with the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, especially on the agreement to pay the lecturers the withheld salaries in tranches.

Tribune Online gathered that ASUU had insisted that the withheld salaries must be paid as the basis for any concession to be given in respect of the Federal Government offer and what the Union is demanding.

It was also gathered the contentious issue of the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System (IPPIS), has been resolved as the Federal Government already taking steps to modify IPPIS to accommodate the peculiarities captured in the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) developed by ASUU and the Universities Peculiar Personnel Payroll System developed by The Joint Action Committee of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities.

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