By Gabriel Dike and Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has resolved to reconsider its decision to shut down university campuses nationwide over pending issues with the Federal Government.
ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodoke, told journalists at the end of an emergency meeting last night that they resolved to temporarily halt the planned strike to allow for more consultations with relevant stakeholders.
A Federal Government team led by the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, met with the leadership of the Union in an attempt to avert a nationwide strike. Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, other top officials in the ministry and the National Universities Commission (NUC) were in the government’s delegation.
According to Osodeke, “we had discussions on all the issues that we previously presented to the government, and we have received some responses from the go officials. So, we will go back and give the details to our members so they can decide on the next line of action.
“What is important is that we have started the process and we hope that we resolve it for the interest of our young ones and the interest of the nation. President Tinubu’s administration has spent one year in office and we have not been called to any formal meeting. Today, we are having the first formal meeting.
“There is a process that we have established, and we are going to set deadlines. We are going to meet to look at what has been done on those issues, and we hope the process will continue.”
He confirmed that they received briefings from the ministers regarding the actions being taken to maintain industrial peace and harmony in the university system and demanded that actions be fastened to avoid further breakdown of industrial peace in the system.
Prof. Mamman expressed happiness with the outcome of the meeting, particularly the fact that the union understood that some of their demands are not within the purview of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“However, consultations would continue on some items that are beyond the scope of the ministry which will require that we connect with our colleagues in other Ministries.
“Nevertheless, the meeting also provided the opportunity for us to rub minds on issues affecting the university system in Nigeria. We have a platform where we interact with the university-based unions on a quarterly basis and this was part of it.
“We had received a letter from ASUU detailing a number of issues and concerns that affect the universities and the unions which required interaction with government officials through the Ministry,” he explained.
Earlier, Osodeke had told newsmen that the meeting was to deliberate on lingering issues affecting the universities to avert the planned strike.
A source said the union had written several letters to the government without a positive response.
“There are a lot of issues that are outstanding within the system, and we believe that before now, they would have been taken care of. The issues would have been resolved in line with the promise made by President Bola Tinubu, and there will not be a strike in the university system.
“We hope that this meeting will be able to resolve some of these issues so that we can move forward as a country, as well as our university system,” he said.
Among the demands are the refusal by the Federal Government to sign and implement the 2009 re-negotiated FGN/ASUU agreement, non-payment of Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), and arrears of promotion, non-release of third party deductions, and failure to implement the recommendations of the white papers on visitation panels to federal universities, refusal to address the unending retrogressive proliferation of universities, withheld salaries and use of IPPIS to pay ASUU members salary.
He said the issues required interactions between the union and the government officials to avert any strike proposed by the union.
ASUU had threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over the Federal Government’s failure to meet its demands. It had charged the government to act within two weeks to address all outstanding demands by the union.
An officer of the union confirmed that the leadership of the ASUU met with the government led by the education minister. “As we speak, we are leaving the venue of the meeting. It was the usual plea for the ASUU not to embark on strike,” he stated.
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