FG Hails ASUU’s Decision To Call Off Strike

asuu-logo

The federal government has lauded the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over its decision to call off its six-month-old strike.

ASUU had yesterday in Minna announced that it had suspended the strike directing its members to resume work immediately, putting an end to the impasse between the union and FG over the latter’s failure too honour an agreement it reached with the union in 2009.

Speaking yesterday on the outcome of the marathon meeting held by the National Executive Council of ASUU at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, the president of the union, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said government should be honourable to fulfill its part of the agreement, adding that ASUU had fulfilled its own.

“Finally, NEC resolved to suspend the strike embarked upon on July 1, 2013, with effect from Tuesday, December 17, 2013 and directs its branches to resume work forthwith.

“We are going back to rekindle the motivation and aspiration in our members to strive to encourage our students to excel, all in the expectation that government will sincerely honour its own part of the bargain. ASUU expects government to implement faithfully the resolutions reached and signed,” he said.

The ASUU president promised Nigerians that despite the duration of the strike and the lost time in the university calendar, ASUU he said, would work towards making it up without compromising any of its standards.

He also warned that none of ASUU’s members should be victimised in any way for whatever role they played in the process leading to the resolution of the dispute.

Speaking on the union’s resolution, the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, expressed joy over the suspension of the strike.

Wogu hailed the suspension of the strike as “a good development”.

Speaking in the same vein, former vice-president Atiku Abubakar hailed the decision by ASUU to call off the strike and hoped that it would afford all parties the needed opportunity for a reset of the nation’s education sector.

He noted that though the strike had lasted for a long time, he expressed his satisfaction over the willingness of ASUU and the government to find a common ground in the interest of students in particular and the nation’s education sector in general.

He therefore urged ASUU and the federal government to put in place a strong mechanism for resolving crises of this nature to ensure that academic activities are not so disrupted in future.

“It has become imperative for ASUU, the federal government and other stakeholders to put in place a mechanism for addressing crises of this nature so that our students and their parents will not be visited with prolonged closures of our universities in the future with its concomitant effects,” Atiku said.