Reps To Meet With ASUU To Discuss Ending The Ongoing Strike 

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other stakeholders will meet with the House of Representatives to discuss a long-term solution to the union’s ongoing strike.

By Omotayo Olutekunbi

The Clerk of the House of Representatives, Mr. Yahaya Danzaria, made this statement in a press release on Monday in Abuja.

The National Assembly’s House of Representatives wing, he added, will be the location of the meeting on Tuesday.

He said the goal of the meeting with ASUU and other important stakeholders was to find a long-term resolution to the ongoing strike that ASUU has been conducting.

He says that the House of Representatives is extremely worried about the recent strike, which seems to have defied all attempts to find a resolution.

He continued by expressing worry on behalf of the House that the Federal Government and the lecturers on strike had not achieved a compromise.

The House, he said, was more concerned about how the walkout would affect the future and educational standards of the throngs of young people.

Despite the House’s intervention and the efforts of other well-meaning Nigerians, according to him, the youth had been confined at home for the previous six months.

He stated that the fact that the case was already before the Industrial Court was unaffected by his statement.

ASUU has been on strike for over seven months, since February 14, over claimed unmet contracts. Among the requests of academics are more salary and greater support for Nigerian public universities.

The union’s demands include money for the Revitalisation of Public Universities, Earned Academic Allowances, the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS), and promotion arrears.

Others include the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and inconsistencies in the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS).

According to the federal government, it will not sign any further agreements that it cannot carry out. Malam Adamu Adamu, the minister of education, made this announcement in Abuja during a National Universities Commission meeting of the provosts and vice presidents of federal universities (NUC).

Adamu said that President Muhammadu Buhari forbade the government team negotiating with ASUU from signing a deal that the government would be unable to enforce.

However, Adamu said that the federal government could only afford a wage raise of “23.5 percent salary increase for all categories of the workforce in federal universities, except for the professorial cadre which will enjoy a 35 percent upward review.”

Additionally, he stated that the budget for the next year will allocate N150 billion for the renovation of federal institutions and another N50 billion for the settlement of unpaid academic staff allowances.

The meeting of university presidents was called at the NUC’s request, according to the minister, and it was made “necessary and urgent due to certain misconceptions and misinformation in the public domain, regarding the ongoing strike action by ASUU.”