The two-week warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities has been suspended.
This was announced during an ongoing news briefing in Abuja on Wednesday by Prof. Chris Piwuna, the National President of ASUU.
Piwuna claims that the National Executive Council meeting, which took place overnight and concluded by 4:00 am on Wednesday, was the reason behind the decision.
According to Piwuna, the union chose to go on strike since the government had not promptly complied with its demands.
“We’ve had productive conversations with government leaders over the response to the 2009 agreements’ draft renegotiation. But we are unquestionably not where we were before the strike started. The government went back to the negotiating table, and the union accepted this. NEC concluded that the ongoing strike should be evaluated, but it also noted that much more work needs to be done. Our students, parents, and the Nigeria Labour Congress worked together to decide to review the strike action.
In order to honour the efforts of well-meaning Nigerians, NEC decided to halt the warning strike.
Remember that on Monday, October 13, ASUU announced a complete and comprehensive warning strike.
According to ASUU’s current demands, the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement must be completed, the withheld three-and-a-half months’ salaries must be released, public universities must be sustainably funded, public universities must be revitalised, and lecturers at LASU, Prince Abubakar Audu University, and FUTO must no longer be victimised.
These include the release of withheld third-party deductions (union check-off dues, cooperative donations), the payment of promotion arrears for more than four years, and the settlement of outstanding 25–35% wage arrears.
