CEM REPORT | The meeting held by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Nigeria Federal Government (FG) has ended in deadlock.
The meeting which was held on Tuesday at the National University Commission in Abuja, with a hope to bring resolution to the ongoing rift between the union and FG, lasted three hours without yelling desired fruit.
Consequently, the hope of campus reopening of many Nigerian students and parents has been dashed for now pending subsequent developments.
CEM gathered that a senior member of ASUU (name withheld) said the negotiation committee came to the meeting without any new offer but instead pleaded with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their concerns will be included in the 2023 budget.
“The meet with the FG’s team was headed by Professor Nimi Briggs and it started by 12:00pm and ended by 3:00 pm. There was no new offer on the table, they simply begged us to call off the strike”.,
Also confirming the development, a member of the ASUU National Executive Committee who asked not to be quoted explained that the government was “unserious” with the negotiations.
“They are not serious. I can’t go over the details with you because the president is responsible for disseminating the information. The proposal presented was unreasonable. There is no hope in sight”.
The spokesperson for the ministry of education, Ben Goong when contacted said that the minister of education would brief the press on Thursday as earlier promised.
CEM had reported that ASUU president Emmanuel Osodeke had earlier said on Monday night that the union has reached an agreement with the government to adopt the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the payment platform for lecturers and suspend the strike.
He noted that “issues of IPPIS and UTAS have been put to rest because the test has been done and it has been agreed with the chief of staff, UTAS will be implemented to cover the university.
“If this government is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. If you recall we were going to suppose to go on strike in November, but we didn’t start it because NIREC came in and intervened. We conceded to them.”
The strike has shut federal government-owned universities for 184 days with President Muhammadu Buhari urging the ASUU to allow students to return to the classroom.
