Chapters of the Academic Staff Union of Universities have voted to continue with the strike action embarked upon by lecturers, putting paid to speculations that the strike may end any time soon.
In adherence to the directive of the national leadership of the union on Monday, chapters of the union in the public universities nationwide on Tuesday conducted a referendum to decide on whether to suspend the ongoing 3-month strike or not.
The national leadership of the Union had directed its Zonal coordinators to meet with their Branch chairpersons to conduct the referendum on the offers of government and feed it back.
It was gathered that over 200 members of the University of Ibadan, UI, and chapter of the Union who attended the congress voted for the continuation of the strike while a little above 50 voted for its suspension with conditions.
According to one of the ASUU members, the members who voted did not even consider the third option which states that the strike should be suspended with conditions.
In a telephone chat with the UI ASUU Chairman, Dr. Deji Omole, he stated that the congress only conducted referendum on the offers of government, saying the congress was the principal which guides the leadership of the union on their struggle.
On the new offers, Omole stated that government promised to mainstream the earned academic allowances into salaries from 2019.
He also hinted that government said as a sign of good faith, it would release N25 billion for the revitalisation of universities while the rest would be defrayed after identifying sources to fund it.
Omole, who stated that government agreed to pay additional N5 billion to make the earned academic allowances N25 billion out of the owed N105 billion, said ASUU wanted government to pay N30 billion.