The negotiation meeting held by the federal government and Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) yesterday, ended in deadlock, thus dashing hope of imminent resumption of academic activities in the nation’s public universities.
The meeting which took place at the facilities of the
National University Commission (NUC) lasted for about three hours.
At the end, both parties dispersed without uttering a word
on it’s outcome.
But reliable sources at the meeting said that the issues
were not conclusively resolved as to lead to the suspension of the over six
months strike by the university
lecturers.
According to one of the sources, issues relating to salary
increment, revitalisation fund and approval for ASUU’s preferred salary payment
platform, University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) formed
part of the discussions at the meeting.
However, a source within the ASUU team said the Briggs
renegotiation committee did not come with any new offer other “than to plead
with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their
concerns will be included in the 2023 budget”.
He said effort by the committee to reach a mutually acceptable position not
succeed, hence the meeting was adjourned to enable ASUU to go back to it’s
organs for consultations, while the committee is expected to brief the
government through the Minister of Education, Alhaji Adamu Adamu.
We sighted a notice to the media from the Media and
Publicity unit of the Ministry of Education informing journalists of an
impending press conference by the Ministry at the Aso Villa on Thursday.
However when sought to know the outcome of the meeting from
ASUU president, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke last night, he declined saying that the
union will brief it’s members before making public their position.
“We will brief our members and after that we will let you
know our stand”, he said.
He also confirmed that the meeting was purely between the
ASUU team and Briggs led committee and that both the Minister of Education and
other top government officials were not involved.