ALL branches of Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, will hold
their congresses today to brief members on President Goodluck
Jonathan’s offer.
Nigeria public universities have been closed
down over four months as a result of the Federal Government’s inability
to implement the agreement it entered into in 2010 with lecturers.
There
have been a lot of calls from well-meaning Nigerians to the Federal
Government and ASUU to come to a compromise so that students resume
academic activities.
Both warring factions had maintained hard stand on the issue as ASUU
argued that poor funding was responsible for the dwindling fortunes of
education and its attendant poor quality of graduates, while the Federal
Government said the university lecturers downed tools over enhanced
earned allowance.
However, the long closure of universities led
the leadership of the Senate and President Jonathan to hold separate
meetings with the union and relevant stakeholders last Monday, where new
offers were made to the teachers with a plea for them to re-open
universities.
A branch Chairman of ASUU, who told Vanguard
of today’s congresses in all the universities, said the meeting was for
the chairmen to brief members on the outcome of their meeting with
President Jonathan.
He further said that the outcome of today’s
meeting of the various branches would be communicated to the national
leadership of the union, which will in turn convene an emergency NEC
meeting between Wednesday and Thursday this week to consider the
positions of various branches .
The Chairman, who did not want his
name to be mentioned, said: “Branches throughout the country will be
holding their congresses on Monday (today) to brief our members on the
outcome of the meeting with the President.
“It is at the meeting
that the various branches will take position and communicate same to the
national leadership Monday evening, then an emergency NEC meeting would
be convened between Wednesday and Thursday.
“We have not been told of the venue, but we were told to prepare because it would take two days by road from my branch.”
He
said calling for a strike or calling it off was not a decision taken by
the ASUU President (Dr. Nasir Fagge) or the national executive alone.
Let's see what the outcome of the meeting will be.
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