…Says He Must Resolve Contending Issues
After 155 days of industrial action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), President Muhammadu Buhari has directed the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, to resolve the ongoing crisis.
The President gave the directive on Tuesday after receiving briefings from relevant government Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) involved in the ongoing efforts to end the face-off with the university unions.
In the meeting which held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the presidency officials involved in negotiations with ASUU briefed Buhari about the situation.
Those at the meeting with the president were the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu; the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed; Mr Ngige; the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami; the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan; the Chairman of National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, and the Director-General Budget Office, Ben Akabueze.
After briefing from the officials, Buhari questioned his Ministers on why the strike had persisted for too long.
Subsequently, he ordered the education minister to ensure that the areas of disagreements were sorted out within two weeks and report back to him.
Buhari directed that the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige must be in any of the meetings to resolve the crisis.
It would be recalled that ASUU had commenced strike on February 14, as other unions also joined them over the alleged inability of the federal government to meet up with their demands.
