NOT ALL ASUU MEMBERS WANT TO CALL OFF STRIKE

The outcome of ASUU meeting indicated that there was disagreement on the need to call off the strike

 ASUU had a meeting yesterday, while the National Executive Council, NEC, meeting will hold tomorrow in one of the northern universities. The outcome of the union’s congresses indicated that there was disagreement on the need to call off the strike.

  While some ASUU chapters were ready to suspend the strike in the light of the President’s intervention, others insisted that they will continue the strike due to what they described as their distrust for the government.

 It was learnt that while the University of Lagos, UNILAG, resolved to suspend the strike, chapters like the University of Ibadan, UI; University of Benin UNIBEN; University of Calabar, UNICAL; University of Jos, UNIJOS and the Lagos State University, LASU, said the strike must continue, arguing that the Federal Government could not be trusted to fulfil its promise of injecting over N1.1 trillion to universities in the next five years.

 At Lagos State University, LASU, one of the executive members of ASUU, says: “After our congress, which lasted several hours, it was the resolve of our chapter that the strike should not be called off, because we are uncomfortable with the fact that the Federal Government has said that ASUU will just be a monitoring officer, while the Minister of Education will be the implementation officer.

 “We argued that we must be part and parcel of how the funds are managed and what they have earmarked for within the period of five years.

 “How can we know if the Ministry of Education and other authorities are prudently spending the funds for the proposed projects if ASUU is not part of the management committee? So, our position is that the strike should not be called off.”

 Members of ASUU at the University of Jos, UNIJOS voted in favour of the continuation of the strike. 194 members voted for the strike to continue while 80 voted for a suspension.

 Those who spoke in favour of the strike to continue wondered why the strike should be called off on the basis of pleas and verbal promises by the president, when the government is allegedly reputed for not to honoring agreements.

 They were said to have argued that the suffering by students and members in the last four months would be a waste if something concrete did not come out of the strike to improve the situation in universities