ASUU Zonal Chapters to Review Strike this Week

ZONAL chapters of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) have said they will meet this week to review the union’s ongoing strike.

The national body of the union and the Federal Government could not agree on the universities teachers’ demands, apart from the N65 billion the government released to the union last week.

ASUU Chairman at the Abia State University (ABSU), Mr. Victor U. Nkemdirim, announced yesterday that the union would meet tomorrow to discuss and pass a resolution on the lingering face-off between the government and the union’s members.

Nkemdirim, who said he was in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, for a zonal meeting of the union, told The Nation on phone that the union’s members in the zone would examine a memorandum from the national body and later take a position on it.

The union leader said the members would report back to the national leadership on the zone’s position.

“The ASUU national body asked various chapters nationwide to hold congresses between Monday and Wednesday to deliberate the resolutions on the items being discussed. Ours will be on Wednesday. We have no resolution for now until the congress meet by 7 a.m on Wednesday.”

But the union’s chairperson at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Prof. Chinyere Echendu, spoke with The Nation yesterday on phone at the end of the chapter’s meeting.

She said the university’s chapter had sent its position to the zonal chapter, which would communicate same to the national body.

On the position of the union at the end of the meeting, Prof. Echendu said: “As a branch, we have met and considered the proposal of the government.

“We have taken a resolution and have given the mandate back (to the national body) to continue with the meeting by Friday.

“It is not possible to tell you the resolutions that we reached. We have taken a position in my branch and the position we have given to our zonal coordinator, which he will present to the national body. The national body will present this to the national strike committee. The national strike committee will present it to the Federal Government.

“Whatever each branch has presented will be brought together for consideration and for a position to be taken.

“That is the way it works. There is nothing like yes or no answer in what you are asking me.”

ASUU Chairman at the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL), Dr. Kudu Dangana said: “The Federal Government is not serious. There are very important issues to address as raised by ASUU, but the Federal Government is playing with our demands.”

 

-Thenation

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