The Federal Government is expected to hold another emergency meeting
with the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Monday in a bid to end
the ongoing strike in public universities.
The last meeting between the two parties took place on November 15 .
Despite the meeting lasting for six hours , the strike was not called
off because no agreement was reached.
Our correspondent learnt on Sunday that today ’s meeting would again
focus on the issues in the 2017 Memorandum of Action, which the union
claimed the Federal Government had neglected.
Public universities lecturers began their strike on November 5 ,
saying the Federal Government had failed to implement the key areas of
focus contained in the MoA.
From a copy of the FG/ ASUU 2017 agreement obtained by our
correspondent , the issues still under contention are the funding of
public universities , earned academic allowances , salary shortfalls and
pension matters.
The President of ASUU , Prof Biodun Ogunyemi , in an interview with
our correspondent on Sunday , confirmed the union ’s meeting with the
Federal Government would take place on Monday.
Ogunyemi said , “There is supposed to be a meeting tomorrow evening
(Monday) . It all depends on the way government approaches it. If they
invite us further , we will go. It also depends on what they put on the
table . We met them briefly and we agreed to meet on Monday (today)
“We met with the Minister of Education ( Adamu Adamu ) on Thursday
and it was a short meeting . We have given them our terms. I am not
representing myself but those who have given us a clear mandate and we
shall abide by the terms. ”
The Federal Government ’ s delegation led by the Minister of Labour
and Employment , Chris Ngige , in their meeting with ASUU leaders on
November 15 appealed to the union to consider the interest of the
students and end the strike.
-Punch