Hours after the end of a marathon meeting, between members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, in Minna, Niger state, which lasted the whole of Monday, there are indication that lecturers might soon call off their nationwide strike action.

Although details of the outcome of the meeting are not out yet, feelers indicate that the union might have agreed to end the strike as long as government sticks to agreements recently reached with it.

The chairman of the union in University of Lagos, Karo Ogbinaka told Channels Television early Tuesday morning that another congress meeting would be held with the different chapters of ASUU on Wednesday to inform members and managements of the institutions of the latest development, in line with procedures, before a call-off is announced.

“We expect the students to resume and expect their members to go back to class immediately after the congress meeting and we expect the government to keep to the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU),” Ogninaka stated.

Monday’s meeting which had in attendance all the ASUU branch chairmen and secretaries, the national executive members of the body, coordinators and past leaders, reportedly took place at the senate building of the Federal University of Technology, FUT, Minna.

The gathering which was held away from the prying eyes of the media was to discuss the new Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the federal government last Wednesday and to reach a consensus on when the strike should be called-off and how to make up for the lost time for students.

An average semester in Nigeria Universities lasts four months, meaning that for a strike that has lasted over five months, a semester’s academic work load will have to be fitted into next year’s academic calendar to allow students graduate at the stipulated time.

The Federal Government and ASUU had reached a compromise during a negotiation brokered by the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar last Wednesday, which led to the signing of the MoU.

The agreement was reached barely 24 hours after the special assistant to the President on public affairs, Doyin Okupe presented a proof of payment of N200 billion into an account with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the union.