A delegation from the Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) are currently in a private meeting to address ongoing issues and prevent a strike by the union.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the meeting began at approximately 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday in the office of the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.
The Federal Government’s team includes the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, along with other senior ministry officials.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, who is heading the union’s delegation, informed reporters that the meeting aims to discuss persistent problems affecting universities and stave off the proposed strike actions.
He said, “There are a lot of issues that are outstanding within the system and we believe that before now, they would have been taken care of.”
‘The issues would have been resolved in line with the promise made by President Bola Tinubu and there would not be a strike in the university system. We hope that this meeting will be able to resolve some of these issues so that we can move forward as a country as well as our university system,”
Earlier, the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, expressed that the meeting would serve as a crucial opportunity for both parties to collaboratively address issues impacting the university system.
Prof. Mamman revealed that ASUU had previously submitted a detailed list of concerns and issues to the ministry, which affect both the universities and the union. He emphasized that these matters require dialogue between the union and government officials to prevent any strikes the union might propose.
ASUU had warned it might initiate a nationwide strike due to the federal government’s inability to fulfil its demands.
Prof. Osodeke has urged the government to resolve all outstanding demands of the union within a two-week timeframe.
President Tinubu during his campaign had promised to address the problems in the tertiary education system which usually result in strike action by university staff unions.
Part of the President’s effort at solving the problems of the tertiary education system is the assent of the Access to Higher Education Act also known as the Student Loan Act, which is being implemented already.
In the past few years, strike action among university staff, both academic and non-academic, has become too common.
In 2020 and 2021, federal university students lost around 15 months of the academic year to strike action on issues such as the use of autonomy of public tertiary institutions, salary arrears and others.
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