Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has given assurances that the 8-month long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will end in a matter of days.
The Speaker during a brief meeting with ASUU delegation at the National Assembly complex in Abuja, Monday, applauded the striking lecturers and President Muhammadu Buhari for taking steps toward resolving the crisis in the interest of Nigerian students, expressing optimism that the nationwide strike will be called off soon.
“This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long-fought battle, long hard road for everybody both for ASUU, the students and the government. As you would recall, some weeks ago the House got involved in this crisis and we had long, tough, intense meetings with ASUU.
“We had meetings with those on the government side and we are happy to report that as the result of the consultation and intervention of the House, very significant progress has been made and we are more or less at the of the road. Save for dotting some ‘I’s and crossing some ‘t’s.
“We agreed with ASUU and the government on certain things which we took to Mr President. I have visited the President twice. First time we made our recommendations with the government shifting some and ASUU shifting some. We spoke with Mr President.
“There was one sticking issue which was the issue of no work no pay. And the President did ask that he would suggest the recommendations and would have one more meeting which we did on Friday after the budget.
“That meeting was even better than the first one we had with him, and Mr President had agreed to settle things. I am not going to talk about that now, and that he would disclose whatever it is tomorrow, Tuesday.
“But beyond that, the other several issues have been taken care of. We were able to make sure that what ASUU was asking for in terms of revitalisation, salary, that there has been significant improvement, revitalisation has been provided for in the budget. We made sure of that.
“The salary structure has been looked at and there has been improvement as well, and we made sure of that as you heard Mr President say during his budget presentation. He appealed to ASUU to go back to class and that N470 billion total has been included in the budget.
“Once that is agreed, I am very hopeful and very excited about the possibility or probability the strike would be called off in a matter of days”, he said.