ASUU Executives meet Friday to decide fate of ongoing strike

From left: Former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Nasir Isa; President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi; and the Vice President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, at a news conference on the state of the nation in Abuja on Monday (14/8/17). 04255/14/8/2017/Albert otu/JAU/NAN
The Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, will on Friday hold a National Executive Council meeting to determine the direction of the ongoing national strike, PREMIUM TIMES can report.

The meeting will be holdingafter national branches equally held meetings on Wednesday to decide on whether the strike should continue or not.

All branch chairmen are expected to be in Abuja on Thursday while the meeting is tentatively expected to end on Saturday after which a decision will be communicated to Nigerians.

When contacted on the planned meeting, the ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, said he would only speak after the meeting had been held.

“We cannot react now but after the NEC meeting we will speak on the developments,” he told PREMIUM TIMES on phone.

Several branch chairmen and officials spoken to declined to provide information on the decision of their branches on the strike, saying they had been asked not to speak to journalists.

“We held special congresses today. I cannot divulge outcome of the meeting but we held a meeting on the strike action,” Tomi Damson, secretary of Lagos State University branch of ASUU said.

The chairman of another branch of the union in a southern university also spoke on the interim report received from the branches.

“From the Southern part of the country and some parts of the North, universities voted for continuation of the strike; but we cannot tell now until after the meeting of NEC,” the don said.

The union went on strike on August 13 to protest against poor welfare and poor funding of universities, a move that led to the Federal Government inviting the body for negotiations. ASUU then sent the details of the negotiation to its branches for further deliberation.

The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu had expressed hope that the strike would be suspended this week.

In a related development, the Ibadan zone of the union has condemned the “continued victimisation of lecturers in University of Ilorin.”

The zonal coordinator, Ade Adejumo, who said this in a press statement alleged that the Vice Chancellor of the university, Ganiyu Ambali, was victimising ASUU members in the university, a situation he said could lead to further prolonging the ongoing national strike.

Attempts to reach Mr. Ambali proved abortive as he did not answer phone calls or reply messages sent to him.