Connect with us
Advertisement

Nigeria News

FG To Meet ASUU Today Over Strike Action

Published

on

Advertisement

The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment is expected to meet with the leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities on Wednesday in Abuja, over the strike action embarked upon by the union since November 5.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, will lead the federal delegation to meet with ASUU executives led by the National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, in Abuja to review the September 2017 Memorandum of Action.

ASUU said during its National Executive Council meeting in Akure, Ondo State, on November 4 that it asked its members to resume strike because of certain unimplemented areas in the 2017 MoA, which suggested the Federal Government’s insincerity to the demands by the lecturers.

Advertisement

Punch reports that the Minister of Labour and Employment and his Education counterpart declined to reply the letter sent to them by ASUU.

The Punch Understands that the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the same day, Tuesday, wrote ASUU inviting the union leaders to a meeting today.

The leader of the Union, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, has however, confirmed that a meeting will be holding between its union and the federal government.

Advertisement

A top ASUU member, who does not want his name in print, added that the meeting would focus on reviewing the 2017 Memorandum of Action and renegotiating the unimplemented areas.

He said, “We guess that, apart from the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s delegation, there will also be representatives from the Ministry of Education at the meeting. You know what the labour ministry always says is that they are mediators. They bring the parties together to facilitate the resolutions of the crisis.

“The meeting will look at all the issues we have raised, both in the memorandum and even in the media.”

Advertisement
Advertisement

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Federal Government Implementation Committee of the FG/ASUU agreement, Dr Wale Babalakin, has said ASUU must come to the negotiating table for permanent solutions to the issues, based on verifiable data.

Babalakin, while speaking in an interview, said the team remained committed to resolving the recurrent disputes militating against the progress of the tertiary education sector.

He said, “Information available is that the government manages to pay the salaries and sometimes the basic overheads of federal universities.”