Why strike’ll continue – ASUU

By KEMI YESUFU, Abuja

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr Nasir Fagge, yesterday dashed the hopes of students and parents as he vowed that the union will continue its over one month strike until government meets all its demands.
Fagge, who spoke to journalists after leaving the sub-committee meeting headed by Bauchi State Governor Gabriel Suswan’s NEEDS Assessment committee, stated that the union would not end the strike until the union completely deals with all the challenges confronting universities.
When asked if ASUU could not end the strike for the interest of the students, he said no. He queried: “Didn’t we do that in the past? How many times did we call off strike before and nothing happened? When we call off strike, people just go back and sleep. Is that what you want us to do?
Continue having strike in this country? Don’t you think for once, it is better we come out and things are done right before we call off the strike? I think that is better for this country.”
But Governor Suswan, Chairman of the Federal Government NEEDS Assessment Committee for universities, assured that the face-off will be resolved in two weeks time.
He said that the sub-committee set up by his own committee has made some progress in sorting out the fundamental issues involved in the re-negotiated agreement with ASUU.
Suswam said: “The meeting went on very well, we have made substantial progress in the negotiation. I would like to say that we are almost getting there. The sub-committee that I set up could not completely finish its work and because there is holiday in between, we have shifted the meeting till next week Tuesday.
“Based on the commitment and seriousness of the negotiations, we are hoping that we will complete this thing in the next two weeks, that was last week when I spoke.
“Because of the holiday in between, we would have been able to finish negotiations. Hopefully, we would agree on all the issues and if the issues are agreed upon by the two parties, I’m very optimistic that the issues would be addressed next week. I believe once we address the issues, the strike will be called off,” he said.