STRIKE: ASUU to convene NEC to end strike this week...

DAILY INDEPENDENT Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) may convene its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting this week to deliberate on the next line of action over its ongoing strike following a marathon meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan at the State House on Monday.
The President had engaged leaders of the union in a make or mar meeting which ended at 3.30 a.m. on Tuesday.
While those on the government side were said to be optimistic that the meeting was worthwhile, officials of ASUU kept mum on their deliberations with the
President, insisting that they must consult with the NEC of their union before they can come up with an official position on the industrial action which has paralysed academic activities in public universities over the last four months.
However, a close source at the Villa told our reporter that the facial expressions of the ASUU officials were not looking too cheerful when they came out of the meeting hall.
Also, when contacted on phone, University of Abuja chapter Chairman of ASUU, Clement Chup, simply said the union would come up with an official position concerning the strike through its NEC soon.
He insisted that the strike was still on but could not give an actual date when the NEC would be convened.
ASUU President, Nasir Fagge, could however not be reached on phone for comment on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, General Secretary of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), Peters Adeyemi, has commended the President for his initiative to invite the unionists for dialogue over the crisis, but said such intervention should have come before the situation degenerated.
He said owing to ill advice and laxity characterising those in government, Nigerians and students have been made to suffer untold hardship.
This, he noted, contributes to the low rating of Nigerian universities in the international community.
Adeyemi stated this in Abuja on Tuesday at the inauguration of a network for Non-Academic, Academic and Research Workers Unions, covering Nigeria and other African nations.
“I am happy that the President has taken up the challenge with ASUU and I think that the guys in ASUU are also patriotic people, I am sure this meeting that Mr President has held with them would yield the desired result, I also think that the problem has been mismanaged.
“Mismanaged in the sense that those critical elements in government have not properly advised Mr President on this matter, because you find that if at the end of the day, it is the personal intervention of the President that would solve this problem then why did we wait till we have lost considerable time.
“I think that there is this thing that has become part of governance, people don’t do what they are supposed to do in good time.
“They allow for things to happen and allow us to go through pains, things that ordinarily would have been done to prevent unions from going on strike, people treat them with levity and they go about running helta skater when this things happen.
“I want to commend Mr President for his courage to call this meeting,” the NASU chieftain added.