next five years, from the federal government, following a
marathon meeting that ended Tuesday, indications have
emerged that the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU) may lose the sympathy of many and may make the
government wield the big stick if it rejects the recent offer by
the government, with a full blown implementation of the 'no
work, no pay' policy likely to break the ranks of the union
and cause disaffection among the members who would feel
the pinch of their salaries being withheld.
The union had however, insisted that it wanted N350 billion
in 2014 and N400 billion annually for the next four years.
A labour leader who was privy to the details of the meeting
between President Goodluck Jonathan and the National
Executives of ASUU told Thisday yesterday it would be in the
best interest of the union to accept the proposal.
"Once you meet the president of a country, where else do you
want to go? Who else do you want to meet with? The
leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade
Union Congress (TUC) were present at that meeting. If we
cannot find an exit, then we are in serious trouble.
"You cannot leave a strike open-ended, it will backfire
seriously. If the government had started the 'no work, no pay'
policy as soon as it was obvious that ASUU was bent on
prolonging the strike, the strike would have been over by
now. It would have broken the ranks of the members," the
source said.
The source added that although labour leaders are of the
opinion that the government holds the major part of the blame
for the strike, they (labour leaders) also think that ASUU has
overdone it.
"If after all these, ASUU remains adamant, then it would be
obvious that they have a political agenda. It may also be an
ego thing for ASUU NEC who realise that ASUU has been
known to be a union that strives on holding governments to
ransom," the source added.
The meeting of ASUU's NEC will hold in the next
one week.
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