The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has announced its decision to postpone its proposed strike action over non-compliance to its needs by the Federal Government.
In a press statement released after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, on Saturday, titled, ‘Enough of blackmail’ and signed by ASUU president, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, the union lamented that the Federal Government has lagged on the plan to set up an inter-ministerial committee to review the draft Renegotiated 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement.
The statement reads in part: “NEC was worried by the spirited efforts of government agents to reduce the demands of ASUU to a regime of intermittent payment of watered-down revitalisation fund and release of distorted and grossly devalued Earned Academic Allowances.
“ASUU shall not relent in demanding improvement in the welfare and conditions of service of our members. However, we shall resist any attempt to blackmail the union and derail our patriotic struggle for a productive university system by official propaganda founded on tokenism and crumb-sharing.
“NEC concluded that government has failed to satisfactorily address all the issues raised in the 2009 FGN-ASUU Agreement and subsequent MoUs and MoAs.
“However, considering the ongoing intervention and consultation efforts, NEC resolved to review the situation at a later date with a view to deciding on the next line of action.”
Recall that ASUU had announced plans to embark on a strike over the Federal Government’s failure to honour its part of the agreement as agreed by both parties.
The union’s demands border across the adoption of the University Transparency Accountability Solutions (UTAS) with concurrent discontinuance of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) and distortion in salary payment; release of accumulated promotion arrears; review and signing of the draft document on the Renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FGN Agreement among others.
