Strike: ASUU Conducts Referendum Nationwide

Strike: ASUU Conducts Referendum Nationwide

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

The zonal coordinators of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday conducted a referendum nationwide to decide on whether to suspend the ongoing three-month old strike or not.

The national leadership of the union had last Monday directed its zonal coordinators to meet with their branch chairpersons to conduct the referendum on the offers of government and feed it back.

THISDAY gathered that over 200 members of the University of Ibadan chapter who attended the congress yesterday voted for the continuation of the strike while a little above 50 members voted for the suspension of the strike with conditions.

While speaking with journalists, the Chairman of the University of Ibadan Chapter, Dr. Deji Omole, said the congress only conducted referendum on the offers of government, stating that the congress is the principal which guides the leadership of the union on their struggle.

On the new offers, Omole stated that government promised to mainstream the earned academic allowances into salaries from 2019.

He also hinted that government said as a sign of good faith, it will release N25 billion for the revitalisation of universities while the rest will be defrayed after identifying sources of funding.

Omole who stated that government agreed to pay additional N5 billion to make the earned academic allowances N25 billion out of the owed N105 billion, said ASUU wanted government to pay N30 billion.

According to him, the federal government has agreed that the renegotiation should commence and end within six weeks.

It was however, gathered from the congress that members voted in favour of the continuation of the strike because they doubted government’s sincerity in fulfilling its new promises following the failure of the Buhari’s administration to fulfil the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) until the ongoing strike.

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