ASUU Strike Update: ASUU Executives To Delibrate With Other Members On Way Forward

After the end of the marathon meeting with President
Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja on Monday, which lasted for
about 13 hours, the leadership of the Academic Staff Union
of Universities (ASUU) said they would now go and brief
their members on the details of the discussions. The
Chairman of ASUU, Dr. Nasir Fagge, told the reporters in
the early hours of November 5, 2013, Tuesday, at the
State House that the leaders would take the President's
message back to their members.
Dr. Fagge, who wore broad smiles afar emerging from the
meeting venue at about 3.35 a.m. did not say what the
message was when he spoke with the correspondents.

"Well we have had lengthy meeting with Mr.
President, rubbing minds on how best to address the
problem of University education in this country.

"And we now have a message from Mr. President we
are going to take to our members. And we are
expecting that our members will respond appropriately
to the message of Mr. President."

On whether the lecturers are going back to the classroom,
he said: "That is up to our members."
Asked what the message was, he said: "I can't tell you. It's
not for you. It is for our members."
If impressed with the message, he said:

"Don't put words
into my mouth. Our members will determine that." The
Labour Minister, Emeka Wogu, who also spoke with the
press, just said what was discussed did not go beyond the
2009 agreement.

The meeting with the President had begun at the
Presidential Villa, Abuja, around 2.40 p.m. on Monday,
after ASUU had also met with the President of the Senate,
Senator David Mark. It would be mentioned that it was the
first meeting between the striking union and President
Goodluck Jonathan since the strike began 1 July, shutting
down almost all state and Federal Government owned
universities in Nigeria.

The Federal Government had initially offered the striking
lecturers N30billion to pay for allowances piled up since
government and the union hammered out an agreement in
2009. Government also offered N100billion to pay for
improvements of facilities in the universities and later
increased this to N200billion on a yearly basis. ASUU
rejected the offer as too small and insisted on government
implementing in full the 2009 agreement.
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN