ASUU strike update: FG to decide on ASUU demands today

Strong indications emerged yesterday that the Federal Executive Council will, at its meeting today, deliberate and reach conclusions on the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities.

The indication was given by Nigeria’s Minister of labour and employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, in an interview with journalists on Tuesday, stating the university lecturers had taken a position on the offers made to them by the federal government at a meeting on August 17.

The minister said the Federal Government would deliberate on the union’s counter-offer.

“Tomorrow (today, Wednesday) is Federal Executive Council meeting and there are aspects that we will need FEC approval to go on with. Thereafter, we will meet with the ASUU team either tomorrow evening or Thursday morning, whichever will be more convenient,” Ngige said.

The labour minister explained that the government side was expected to discuss the ASUU’s counter-offer in order to hold a meeting with the lecturers’ body to resolve the areas of disagreement.

He stated, “The government, as you know, has made an offer to ASUU through the ministry of education and late yesterday (Monday) ASUU got back to us with their counter-offer.

READ ALSO: ASUU strike update: ASUU Gives Federal Government 6 New Conditions To End Strike

“By then, this meeting had been scheduled and the government side needed to deliberate on their counter-offer before we can have a reconciliation meeting to further discuss areas of disagreement. That is the position right now.

“We are holding a government side meeting, while the Minister of Education is also holding meeting and we will meet later today (Tuesday) and formalise our position.”

Also, ASUU, have revealed why they boycotted a meeting which was scheduled to hold between them and the government on Tuesday.

According to ASUU President, Biodun Ogunyemi, who confirmed that the union will not attend the meeting, ASUU has met, discussed the new offer from the FG and submitted a proposal to the government.

Consequently, the union will only honour another meeting after receiving a reply to their proposal from the government.

The statement read: “Following due consultation, we have collated the views of our members on the offers from government in dispute in the letter dated August 16. These views were submitted to FG via our letter dated August 28.

“As we await the Federal Government’s action on our letter, we hope that it would not be long before we receive a positive response which will bring an end to the dispute.”

Prof. Ogunyemi also refused to disclose the contents of ASUU’s counter-offer to the government in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Tuesday.

He stated, “We submitted our report to the FG yesterday (Monday) but we can’t discuss that with the press now. What they have promised us is that they were going to get back to us as soon as possible.’’

The nationwide strike action embarked on by ASUU, on August 13, has now entered its second week.