ASUU Agrees To Call Off 8-month Strike After FG Promises To Pay N70bn

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has finally agreed to call off its eight-month strike.

The leadership of the union reached the consensus during a meeting with representatives of federal government led by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, in Abuja, on Friday, November 27, 2020.

According to Punch, the FG also promised to pay N40 billion as the Earned Allowance and N30bn for the revitalisation of the university system bringing the total payment to N70 billion.

The government also promised to settle the arrears of salaries of the lecturers before December 31.

This is coming a week after the government agreed to exempt ASUU members from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) pending the approval of their proposed payment system, the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.

However, ASUU strike won’t be called off until after the union meets with its organs to communicate its agreement with the government.

A source, who spoke to Punch said ASUU had insisted that the agreement should not be announced until its members approved it.

While addressing journalists after the meeting, Ngige said the parley as fruitful, adding that the government made a proposal to the union to take back to its members.

“Many issues were discussed at the meeting including salary shortfall, the payment system and revitalisation of the university system. I am positive that all the issues would be resolved at our next meeting,” he said.

ASUU President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi said everything Ngige said was correct.

He, however, refused to make further comment about the meeting with the FG.