The Federal Government and Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, have failed to make any fresh agreement after their six-hour meeting in Abuja on Thursday ended in a deadlock.
The situation means that the ongoing ASUU strike will continue but both parties agreed to resume talks next week to resolve the ongoing strike by university teachers.
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, told journalists at the end of a closed-door meeting with the union in Abuja on Thursday that there is hope for a possible resolution soonest.
Thursday’s meeting was called at the instance of the minister.
“We will resume discussions by next week,” Mr Ngige said.
The ASUU delegation was led by its National President, Prof Biodun Ogunyemi, while the government side had the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige; the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono; and the Accountant-General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris.
The labour minister, during a brief session with newsmen before the closed-door meeting, apologised that “talks with the academic union are coming a bit late because we have been having negotiations on the new minimum wage.”
Ngige said, “The government appeals to ASUU to put the interest of the students first because they are at the receiving end of the consideration.”
In a copy of the 2017 Memorandum of Action, which was reviewed by the two parties, the issues of discussion included “funding for revitalisation of universities; earned academic allowances; staff schools; pension matters; salary shortfalls, Treasury Single Account exemption; and state universities.”
Ogunyemi, after the six-hour meeting, said the union had put forward its demands and the meeting had been adjourned till next week.
He said, “No date has been fixed for next week but we will communicate the date to you tomorrow (Friday). The union was forced to go on strike because our plea for the implementation of the 2017 Memorandum of Action fell on deaf ears.
“Our meeting with the Minister of Education (Adamu Adamu) in May and September 2018 to remind him of the Federal Government’s promises to implement the agreement yielded no result.”
Some of the demands by the union are that the Federal Government should nominate another chairman of the government renegotiating team of the 2009 ASUU/Federal Government Agreement to replace Dr Wale Babalakin.
Other issues bothering the union are non-payment of Earned allowance, funding of revitalization of the Nigerian universities, implementation of needs assessment report, poor funding of state universities, among others.
Those present at Thursday’s meeting were the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sonny Echonu, and Isa Fagge, former ASUU President.
