To Avert ASUU Strike, FG Constitute New C’ttee To Review Demands

The strike threat recently issued by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has prompt­ed the Federal Government to schedule a meeting with the union which, however, ended in an inconclusive note.

However, the government and stakeholders agreed to recon­vene on September 6 to enable them perfect all grey areas in the union’s demands after con­stituting a sub-committee to review ASUU’s demands while also finding lasting solutions to the union’s grievances.

Recall that ASUU’s leader­ship under Professor Emman­uel Osodeke had slammed a 21 days ultimatum on the Federal Government to address existing demands some of which revolve around prompt release of revit­alisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, and release of earned allowances for university lecturers.

ASUU is believed to be losing patience with the Federal Government over the deployment of the University Transpar­ency and Accountabili­ty Solution (UTAS), an alternative platform it recommended to govern­ment for the payment of salaries.

Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who presided over the meeting later informed the media that a sub-committee had been set up to review their demands while also find­ing lasting solutions to the union’s grievances.

Prof. Osodeke said he was optimistic that all is­sues would be resolved be­fore the September 6 meet­ing date.

“We have met to discuss all the issues and review them. We have given gov­ernment between now and the next meeting to see what they have done.

“We believe in the inter­est of the Nigerian child and to protect their inter­est if the issues were re­solved,’’ he said.

There are however spec­ulations that the outcome of the September 6 meeting will determine whether the institutions would be shut down or not.

The 21-day strike notice issued by the union will elapse few days after the September 6 scheduled meeting.

Meanwhile, Mamman has constituted an imple­mentation monitoring committee of NEEDS as­sessment intervention fund for Nigerian public univer­sities to address one of the concerns of ASUU.

Daily Independent re­calls that ASUU and the immediate past adminis­tration under former Pres­ident Muhammadu Buhari engaged in protracted strike which crippled the university system for sev­eral months.

Most of the demands which were largely unful­filled by the Buhari admin­istration are being carried over to the incumbent gov­ernment under President Bola Tinubu to which he had given assurance that he would meet.