Vice president Sambo takes charge of Asuu strike

VICE president Namadi Sambo has taken direct charge of government negotiations aimed at ending the three month strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (Asuu) proposing new cash which he hopes will end the dispute within weeks.

University lecturers have been on strike since June over the implementation of the 2009 agreement they had with the government and all attempts to resolve the crisis so far have failed. Asuu is asking that all its demands be met before their members resume work but government ministers say meeting them would cost N92bn (£360m), which the treasury cannot afford at the moment.


A government committee headed by Benue State governor Gabriel Suswan has so far failed to make any headway and yesterday, vice president Sambo took charge of negotiations. He held a meeting with the Asuu leadership
yesterday along with minister of state for education Nyesom Wike and the Professor Julius Okojie, the executive secretary of the National Universities Commission.

Asuu was led by its national president Dr Nasir Faggae, and two former presidents Dr Dipo Fasina and Dr Abdullahi Sule-Kano. Also in attendance were Others at the meeting were the vice chancellors of Bayero University Kano, Professor Abdulrasheed Abubakar; Professor Isaac Adewole of the University of Ibadan and Professor Muhammed Hamisu of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi.

Following the meeting, Mr Wike assured that students would soon return to school as the government was ready to make sure all the contending issues were resolved as soon as possible. One source at the meeting said that going by the new offers made by the federal government, the strike might be called off within the next two weeks.

He added: "The meeting went well as the vice-president made some new offers that were different from what was on ground before. For instance, the federal government has agreed to start the injection of revitalisation fund into the university system starting with N100bn this year and N150bn in 2014 and this will continue until the university system is solid enough to stand."


Dr Fagge added, however, that the union would make its position known after holding a national executive council meeting scheduled for Saturday. It is unclear if Asuu's NEC will be swayed with the government's pledge to inject fresh fund into the university system as past promises have been reneged upon.