The national president of the Academic Staff Universities Union (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, said on Thursday that the union is willing to end its seven-month-old strike action.
Osodeke, however, said this could only be achieved if concrete agreements were reached with the Federal Government.
The union embarked on industrial action on Feb.14, marking over seven months since public universities across the country were closed.
The federal government recently sued ASUU in an industrial court to end the strike.
Speaking at a National Town Hall Meeting on Tertiary Education tagged: ‘ The Locked Gates of our Citadels -A National Emergency.’
Osodeke also urged the Nigerian government to change its mind for the sake of Nigerian students who have remained at home for the past seven months.
His words: “On all these issues, we have given the government a minimum that we can accept, but they have not responded to the issue of revitalisation, earned allowance, and issues that we have all discussed.
”We negotiated and agreed that they should sign, which is very simple, within a day.
”On UTAS and IPPIS, we say release the report of the test you did and let’s look at the one who came first and take it as we agreed.
”So we have given them the minimum we want, and we have to come down, and they can do it in one day if there is a will,” he said.
Therefore, Osodeke reiterated the union’s commitment to returning to school if the federal government puts its proposal on the table, saying that negotiation could be reached if the government was willing.
“If the government loves this country, these children and their parents, then they should come to the table and let us resolve these issues in one day.
“Just as we did in 2014, they should come and ensure that we do that, we can even have the meeting openly so that Nigeria will see what we are discussing,” he said.
Nice one