By Oladosu Oluwagbenga
The eight-month-old strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has been put on indefinite hold.
During a leadership meeting that started on Thursday night and went into the early hours of Friday, the union made the decision to call off the strike.
The union scheduled the conference after its state chapters last week discussed the Court of Appeal verdict in order to decide its course of action. This morning, ASUU is anticipated to officially proclaim the strike’s suspension.
ASUU was required to halt its strike before the conference so that the Court of Appeal could hear its appeal of the decision ordering professors to resume work.
The meeting at the ASUU National Secretariat in Abuja was attended by members of the union’s National Leadership Committee, which is made up of the leaders of the state chapters and the national executive.
Since this year’s Valentine’s Day, the ASUU has been on strike.
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The lecturers’ strike, which was initially scheduled to last four weeks, was called by ASUU, which claimed it was in support of better university financing and improved welfare for its members as a result of agreements made with the government.
ASUU specifically demanded that the monies for school revitalization be released, that members be paid earned academic allowances, and that whitepapers from the presidential inspection committees’ reports be made available. Furthermore, it requested that university employees use the University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) as their preferred method of payment rather than the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).
After the Federal Government and ASUU were unable to come to an agreement, the union continued to extend the strike before declaring it indefinite in August.
Following the conflict, the Federal Government registered two factional unions: the National Association of Medical and Dental Academics and the Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) (NAMDA).
However, ASUU had stated that it was unconcerned by the government’s action and had called it “illegal”.
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