October 14, (THEWILL) – The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has suspended its eight-month-old strike conditionally.
The suspension of the lingering industrial dispute followed a resolution of an all-night meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU in Abuja.
The NEC comprises chairmen of the state chapters and members of the national executive.
The meeting was convened to articulate the responses of its members and possibly suspend their strike.
Chris Piwuna, vice-president of the union, who confirmed the development, said they agreed to suspend the strike conditionally based on the assurances given by the federal government to offset its salary arrears and to meet its stated demands within given timelines.
However, ASUU in a press statement on Friday noted that their demands from the Federal government were yet to be satisfactorily addressed.
The press release, which was signed by the National President of the union, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, hailed the intervention of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila.
The statement partly read, “ The National Executive Council of ASUU held an emergency meeting at the Comrade Festus Iyayi National Secretariat, University of Abuja, Abuja, on Thursday, October 13, 2022”.
The union in its statement further noted that the Minister of Labour, Employment and Productivity, Chris Ngige, took the striking lecturers to court.
“The National Industrial Court, in its wisdom, gave an order compelling ASUU to resume work pending the determination of the substantive suit. Given the nature of the order, and in the opinion of our counsel, there was the need to appeal the interlocutory injunction granted against our union at the Court of Appeal.
“The Court of Appeal acknowledged the validity of the grounds of the union’s appeal but still upheld the order of the lower court and ordered our union to comply with the ruling of the lower court as a condition precedent for the appeal to be heard.
“NEC noted the series of meetings with the leadership of the House of Representatives led by the Hon. Speaker, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as well as intervention efforts of other well-meaning Nigerians both within and outside the government and the progress, made so far.”
Speaking further on the status of negotiations, the union said, “While appreciating the commendable efforts of the leadership of the House of Representatives and other patriotic Nigerians who waded into the matter, NEC noted with regrets that the issues in dispute were yet to be satisfactorily addressed.
“However, as a law-abiding union and in deference to appeals by President Muhammadu Buhari, and in recognition of the efforts of Hon. Gbajabiamila, and other well-meaning Nigerians, ASUU NEC resolved to suspend the strike action embarked upon on February 14, 2022. Consequently, all members of ASUU are hereby directed to resume all services hitherto withdrawn with effect from 12:01 on Friday, October 14, 2022.”
The National Industrial Court had on September 21, granted interlocutory order in favour of the federal government, ordering the university lecturers to resume work pending the resolution of their dispute with the government.
Lecturers of the Federal Government owned universities had embarked on strike since February 14, 2022, to demand the release of revitalisation funds for universities; deployment of the University Transparency Accountability System (UTAS) for the payment of salaries and allowances of university lecturers; release of earned allowances; the release of the white paper report of the visitation panels to universities and other issues involving the ASUU-FGN 2009 agreement.
The Federal Government had set up a negotiation team to look into the Union’s demand.
However, amid several failed negotiations, the Government approached the court to order ASUU to suspend its strike while it engage the union to address the dispute.
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