ASUU strike winding down, latest updates

The ongoing ASUU national strike in Nigeria is finally winding down. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Pius Anyim, will meet on Monday with the leadership of the Acadmic staff union of Universities, ASUU, to address the two remaining issues: earned allowance and general university funding for infrastructure development.

Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue disclosed this to news correspondents on Friday in Abuja after a meeting of ASUU with members of the committee on implementation of Needs Assessment Report to Nigerian Universities.

He said that after hours of deliberation behind closed doors, the meeting agreed on major issues except the two.

“These are the outstanding issues, otherwise other issues have been agreed on and we believe that by next week we should be able to agree on all the issues and, probably, ASUU will call off the strike,’’ he said.

“If you go into our universities you will agree with me that there are a lot of infrastructure deficit; so, we have agreed that all the funding agencies will meet with ASUU,” he said.

The current strike by the university lecturers will enter its fourth week on Monday, with the lecturers insisting they would not return to work unless the government agrees to implement all the content of a 2009 agreement both parties had.