Osodeke also confirmed his union, ASUU, will be meeting the Federal Government on Tuesday, August 16, to discuss the way forward
By Kehinde Okeowo
Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, the national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has said university lecturers are willing to end their 183-day-old strike if the Federal Government agrees to its demands.
Osodeke said this when he appeared on Channels TV’s programme ‘Politics Today’ on Monday, August 15, where he also said the union will be meeting FG today in an attempt to end the logjam.
According to the University Don, ASUU will end the industrial action and lecturers will return to the class, if at the end of the meeting, his union is satisfied with what the FG is putting on the table.
He said, “If we go into that meeting tomorrow and the government says, what you have bargained for, we are willing to sign, the strike will be called off.”
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The FG and ASUU have not met to negotiate since the submission of the ASUU report by the Professor Briggs-led committee.
President Muhammadu Buhari also gave the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, two-week to address the demands of ASUU, but the ultimatum elapsed three weeks ago without a solution in sight.
Prior to the interview, Osodeke had accused the Federal Government of using the Integrated Payroll and Personnel information system (IPPIS) to short-change the union for 16 years.
He said, ‘’We have been shouting all along that IPPIS is a fraud, we have told them that for 16 years they siphoned our money with IPPIS, they punished our members because of it. Now, they know, some foreign bodies forced it on the people.’’
ASUU commenced its ongoing strike on February 14, 2022, after the Federal Government refused to meet its demands.