Federal Government and leadership of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will on Thursday resume negotiation with the view to resolve the lingering crisis which led to ongoing nationwide strike.
Speaking on the development, Biodun Ogunyemi, ASUU President affirmed that the meeting is scheduled to hold by 1pm at the instance of Adamu Adamu, Minister of Education and government’s negotiating team.
He Union President observed that the sum of N20 billion released by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in September 2018 was not an issue and that N200 billion ought to have been released in October 2017 as part of the 2013 MoU at which Government agreed to inject N1.3 trillion to fund universities at N220 billion yearly for five years.
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Ogunyemi who expressed displeasure over the state of tertiary education in the country, observed that the situation on campuses may degenerate than the poor quality of teaching and learning in the majority of public primary and secondary schools.
This, according to him prompted huge patronage of private schools.
He also warned that the ‘No work no pay’ threats issued by Federal Government cannot be directed at the lecturers as industrial action is legal in Nigerian labour law and international conventions which Nigeria is signatory
ASUU is hoping that the meeting scheduled for Thursday will be used to deliberate on resolving the issues at stake and not to continue to raise alarm that past administrations made bogus agreements with the university teachers.
Recall that Federal Government had in September 2018 released total sum of N8 billion Earned
Allowances to the three Non-Teaching Staff across Nigerian Universities, namely: Senior Staff of Nigerian Universities
(SSANU), Non Academic Staff Unions of Associated and Educational Institutions (NASU) as well as National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT).
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
