The Academic Staff Union of Universities, on Saturday, says the eight-month-old strike by universities lecturers is still on.
According to a PUNCH report, The President of ASUU, Biodun Ogunyemi, revealed that the Organization does not operate a Twitter account. He debunked reports announcing the suspension of the ongoing industrial action as fake.
He said, “ASUU does not have a Twitter account. Many people have been bombarding me with telephone calls and I can’t answer again. If we want to call off our strike, we will address a press conference and that is how we operate.”
Recall that the Federal Government accepted the demand by ASUU that the lecturers be exempted from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System.
The government also offered to increase the Earned Allowances to university staff from N30 billion to N35b and the Revitalisation Fund from N20b to N25b.
The development came after weeks of negotiations and disagreements by the FG and ASUU, which proposed the University Transparency and Accountability Solution as its preferred payment platform.
Reading out the communique at the end of a seven-hour negotiation with ASUU members in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, had said the government also agreed to ASUU’s demand to pay their members’ salary arrears from February to June through the old salary payment platform, Government Integrated Financial and Management Information System.
The breakthrough in negotiations is expected to end the eight-month strike embarked on by the university lecturers as parents and students wait on ASUU to call off the strike.