There is now hope for undergraduates to continue their studies as ASUU hints on strike end in matter of days.
Speaker of the House of Representatives Femi Gbajabiamila last night said that in a matter of days the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU will call off the 7-month-old strike that had kept the citadel of learning under lock and keys.
Rising from a meeting with the ASUU leadership led by its President, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke called at the instance of the lawmakers, the speaker said that the deal had been sealed.
It will be recalled that the leadership of the House led by Gbajabiamila had in the last 4 weeks held 4 different meetings with the academic body to resolve the lingering, knotty issues with the government.
Last week, the Speaker led a delegation of lawmakers to the Presidential Villa where he met with President Muhammadu Buhari to submit the report of the meeting with ASUU.
Gbajabiamila said President Muhammadu Buhari would make a declaration on the “No Work No Pay” issue, which is a significant area of contention, on Tuesday, October 11.
He said that both the government and ASUU had agreed to shift grounds on their respective positions in overall interests of the students and the country at large.
The meeting witnessed a closed-door session.
He said, “This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long fought, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU, the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU.
We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as the result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the of the road. Save for dotting some “I”s and crossing some “T”s.
“We agreed with ASUU and the government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the president twice. The first time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some.
On his own part, the ASUU president, Professor Emma Osodeke said that between now and tomorrow, members of the body will sign various documents to perfect the agreements
He said there was “light at the end of the tunnel”.
He said, “We have met briefly in the Speaker’s office and looked at all the issues. He has briefed us. We have taken note of what they have covered.
As you know, in my union, we operate bottom-up. We don’t take decisions on their behalf without having their consent. We have agreed that between now and tomorrow, we are going to get some documents signed that we can take to our members.
We will do that as quickly as possible in the interest of all of us, Nigerians and the students so that this thing can be resolved as quickly as possible.
“From what we have seen today, for the first time since this our action started, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, because this is the first time, we are having such a thing.
We hope this time around there will not be any attempt by anybody or any group to create something that will also make us run into anything again. We do hope that this will be the final in the interest of our children.
“Our struggle – thank God the National Assembly is joining us – is for the educational system in Nigeria. We want to have a university in Nigeria where we should be earning money from students all over the world and paying in hard currency as we are paying (overseas) so that our system will grow.
That is why we are in this struggle. We want to have a university where the remuneration is enough to attract lecturers from all over the world, just as our people are going outside.
