As the two-week suspension of the Academic Staff Union of Universities' (ASUU) strike ends tomorrow, Ukachukwu Awuzie, National President of the Union said: "We are working and not resting. We hope the government will meet the deadline."
The union had gone on an indefinite strike to press for the signing and implementation of the agreement it reached with the government in 2008, which included increased funding of the education sector. On Friday October 09, following the intervention of the governor of Edo Sate, Adams Oshiomhole, ASUU announced a temporary suspension of its strike which lasted for over three months.
This was to allow for further negotiations between the lecturers and the Federal Government.
Speaking with NEXT on telephone yesterday, Mr. Awuzie implied a conclusion to the matter was in sight.
"We need to meet the deadline on Friday. That is what we are working towards. Negotiation is ongoing and we are almost finishing. I am only hopeful and prayerful that I will be able to have something to tell them (the students) before the deadline expires," he said.
Mr. Awuzie declined to state categorically if students of Nigeria's tertiary institutions, many of whom had staged demonstrations over the continued industrial action, would wake up to a pleasant news regarding the issue tomorrow.
"I don't know if it will be pleasant or not, all I know is that I will tell them something. Whether or not it is going to be pleasant, all depends on who is looking at it and what you consider as pleasant or unpleasant," he said.
In another development, the university don reacted to news of a recent advertorial by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry of education which sought applications for teaching jobs in South Africa from Nigerian science teachers not gainfully employed in the country.
"If they have properly staffed our secondary schools with Maths and English or science teachers and we have excess to export, I have no problem with that. There is nothing wrong with Pan-African co-operation. I do not have statistics, but my own understanding is that most of our secondary schools do not have adequate numbers of mathematics teachers which may create more problems for our educational system," Mr. Awuzie explained.
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