ASUU strike: Schools resume November 18 (Read)

A source close to top guns in the Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) has told Amenbovillage 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