ASUU Strike May End On December 17th

The Federal Government and the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities have reached a partial agreement , the Minister of Labour and Employment , Dr Chris Ngige , announced on Monday .

According to the News Agency of Nigeria , Ngige made the announcement at a reconciliation meeting in Abuja aimed at finding ways of resolving the strike which commenced on November 5 . The meeting ended late on Monday .

He said , “ We have finished our deliberation for today ( Monday ) . I am happy to report that we touched some areas of understanding in implementation from the Memorandum of Action which we agreed to in 2017 .

“ Some of these areas we have substantial compliance and some other areas have not been fully dealt with .
“ Like the issue of shortfall in salaries of some federal universities ’ workers and lecturers , ASUU has given a list to the Accountant - General ’ s Office and we have agreed that by Wednesday that list should be cross - checked by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing .

“ So , the Accountant - General ’ s Office is to get back to us by Wednesday . ”
He noted that the meeting had identified one area to look for the funds for the revitalisation of the universities , adding that the appropriate government organ would be contacted on the issue.

Ngige said government was sure to have good news for the striking lecturers .
“ We also discussed the issue of state universities and agreed also that even if education is on the concurrent list , the universities should be properly funded and staffed so that we do not produce half - baked students from those universities .

“ In realisation of this, the Ministry of Education will set up a committee that would engage the Nigeria Governors ’ Forum, and the Minister of Education has taken steps in that direction to formalise the interaction . ”
The minister said he hoped with the agreement reached that the union would call off the strike at the next meeting scheduled for December 17 .

On his part, ASUU National President , Prof . Abiodun Ogunyemi , said , “ Our own understanding is that we heard promises made on the part of government; we shall await the report on all the issues and after that we can get back to our members to take a decision . ”

Punch