By Hamilton Nwosa
The Federal government is currently holding a closed-door meeting with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The meeting is coming amidst a threat by the ASUU to embark on a nationwide industrial action over the failure of the Federal government to meet its demand.
The delegation of the Federal Government which was led by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, also includes the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, along with other senior ministry officials.
ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, the leader of ASUU’s delegation, who spoke with the press before the meeting said the aim is 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,”
The New Diplomat reports that ASUU had issued a stern warning to the Federal Government that it might initiate a nationwide strike due to the federal government’s inability to fulfil its demands.
The union had called on the government to resolve all outstanding demands of the union within a two-week timeframe.
The union is demanding implementation of core issues contained in the FGN/ASUU MoU 2012/2013, and the MoA of 2017, the Illegal dissolution of Governing Councils in the Federal and State Universities, the release of three and a half months of the outstanding three and a half months withheld salaries for a work that was already done.
