;
The Federal Government through
the Ministry of Labour and Employment and leaders of the Academic Staff Union of Universities are expected to meet in Abuja on Thursday over the strike in
public universities since November 5.
 |
| ASUU Strike |
Our correspondent confirmed on Wednesday’s
that the Federal Government delegation led by the Minister of Labour and
Employment, Chris Ngige, would 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.
The PUNCH exclusively reported
on Tuesday that the ministries of Labour and Employment as well as Education
had yet to reply to the letters written by ASUU since November 5.
Our correspondent learnt that
the Ministry of Labour and Employment on the same day, Tuesday, wrote ASUU inviting the union leaders to a meeting
today.
Ogunyemi confirmed to our
correspondent that the union would meet with the Federal Government’s
delegation today.
He said, “Yes, the government
wrote us on Tuesday, inviting us to a
meeting on Thursday.”
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.”
Our correspondent obtained a
copy of the 2017 Memorandum of Action, which will be reviewed by the two
parties and the memorandum highlighted the seven-point issues in dispute.
They are the funding of
revitalisation of universities, earned academic allowances, staff schools,
pension matters, salary shortfalls, Treasury Single Account exemption and state
universities.
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.”
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