TheCable

Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), says the union is optimistic of an end to its strike soon.

He said this on Monday at a meeting with the leadership of the house of representatives.

ASUU has been on strike since February over issues revolving around “revitalising” public universities, review of lecturers’ salaries and allowances, among other matters.

Also present at the meeting on Monday was Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house of representatives.

Speaking at the meeting, Osodeke said there should be more commitment from concerned stakeholders towards ensuring that strike periods are not allowed to stretch for so long.

“Please, let all of us work together to put a beautiful end to this end to this thing we have started, so that every Nigerian will be proud that we have universities we can be proud of,” Osodeke said.

“Once again, I want to thank you. I also extend our appreciation to the president for intervening, I want to appeal that in the future, we should not allow strike to linger. Strike should not go beyond two days.

“If the way the national assembly has intervened, if we had done that long ago, or those in charge of labour and education had done exactly this, we would not be where we are today; we would not have stayed more than two or three weeks on this strike. There is strike all over the world — UK, US, all over — but they don’t allow it to last.

“So, once again, thank you very much and we hope that working together, in the next few days, we can put an end to this particular imbroglio in the Nigerian educational system.”