ASUU STRIKE UPDATE: SCHOOLS WILL RESUME NOVEMBER 18

President Jonathan shares
handshake, smile with ASUU delegation
Yes! Pack your bags!
A source close to top guns in the Academic
Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has told The
City Reporters the lecturers will ditch their four
month old strike this weekend so students
could resume on November 18 (next Monday).
The source said there was no way the union
could reject the new offer of N220bn a year
tabled by President Goodluck Jonathan during
a marathon meeting with ASUU last week
Tuesday.
ASUU had come out of that meeting to tell
Nigerians it needed time to deliberate on the
new deal and reach a consensus among it
members before talking to the press.
A top official of the union,  has however said
the government could not be trusted even on
the new offer, and that ASUU’s members were
divided over the government’s offer. He,
however raised a beam of hope by saying the
majority still decided to give the government
the benefit of the doubt.
As ASUU executives meet this Wednesday, if
the fate of the strike is down to a vote among
the striking lecturers, as suggested by ASUU
chairman, Nasir Fagge, the four month old
impasse may surely end this week.
ASUU went on strike July 1 over the non-
implementation of a 2009 agreement it had
with the government with a key component of
the memorandum of understanding the
allocation of 26% of Nigeria’s total budget to
education.
Although the government is planning to
allocate just 9% of the 2014 budget to
education, ASUU now seems set to end the
strike after government offers that would surely
boost lecturers’ take home pay and improve
varsity infrastructure.
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