A silver lining yesterday emerged in the five-month-old face-off between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) as the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) intervened with both parties signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The lecturers went on strike on July 2 this year over conditions in the universities, among other issues.
The NLC negotiation team led by its President, Abdulwahed Omar supervised the signing of the MoU which detailed modalities for the distribution of the N200 billion deposited by the Federal Government into an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN.
The deal also included the non -victimisation clause and payment of the lecturers’ salaries.
However, ASUU failed to announce the suspension of the strike. Its president, Dr. Nasir Fagge, said the signed document would be presented for further deliberation at their National Executive Council (NEC) meeting which will be convened this week.
The Supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, while reading out the MoU terms,said, “let me say clearly that today is not just historic, it is one of the happiest days of my life since I became the Minister of Education.
“As you are all aware ASUU had been on strike for well over five months on account of their resolve to bring about a new lease of life to all public universities, following Mr President’s personal intervention with the marathon meeting we held on November 4, 2013.
“With the executive of ASUU and other labour union leaders where all residual issues were resolved, Nigerians from all walks of life had expressed optimism that the strike would soon be called off.
Culled from Sun
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