Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria, expressed hope yesterday that the current strike by the Academic Staff union of Universities, ASUU, would end soon.
Following a meeting with Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, President of ASUU, and other senior ASUU officials, Gbajabiamila announced this.
He said besides this, the other issues had been taken care of with the federal government and ASUU shifting grounds on their positions.
Gbajabiamila predicted that President Muhammadu Buhari will make a statement regarding the “No Work, No Pay” controversy, which had been a major point of contention in the ongoing labor dispute today.
The Speaker said, “This is a recap to seal the deal on what has been a long fought, 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 end 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 presentation.
“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 Tuesday, on that one remaining issue.
On his part, ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke said there was, “light at the end of the tunnel” over the lingering strike.
He praised the House for getting involved, stating that if it had done so earlier, the strike would have only lasted a few days.
He indicated that while he had noted the areas covered, a decision would only be made when union members were consulted.
He suggested that future strikes should not be permitted to drag on or last more than two days.
He said, “We have met briefly in the Speaker’s office and looked at all the issues. He has briefed us. We have taken note of what they have covered.
“As you know, in my union, we operate bottom-up. We don’t take decisions on their behalf without having their consent. We have agreed that between now and tomorrow, we are going to get some documents signed that we can take to our members. We will do that as quickly as possible in the interest of all of us, Nigerians and the students, so that this thing can be resolved as quickly as possible.
“From what we have seen today, for the first time since this our action started, we are seeing light at the end of the tunnel, because this is the first time we are having such a thing. We hope this time around there will not be any attempt by anybody or group to create something that will also make us run into anything again. We do hope that this will be the final in the interest of our children.”
Recall that last week the Appeal court ordered ASUU to end the ongoing strike immediately.