The end to the ongoing strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) seems not to be in sight as the meeting between the Nigerian government and the union has hit the rocks.
\nDuring the meeting, which held yesterday, the Federal Government promised to fulfill some of the conditions being demanded by ASUU in an attempt to end the strike by the union.
\nMinister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige, who convened the meeting with the union leaders, said the government would meet certain conditions.
\nIt was gathered that the ASUU leaders who attended the parley did not agree to call off the strike.
\nThe ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi who led the executive members of the union to the meeting said he needed to brief other members of the union.
\nMeanwhile, the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, yesterday said the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities may be called off within one week.
\nThe minister stated this at a meeting with the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund in Abuja.
\nAdamu said that the ministry and other major stakeholders were already holding meetings with the union to resolve some of the issues that led to the strike.
\nHe assured that with the level of progress made in the negotiation, there was hope that students and lecturers would return to classes within one week.
\nAdamu said, \u201cthe issue of renegotiation is already going on. I have already written a letter formalising the meeting I had with the union, because I went alone to face them and I wrote a letter which I gave them yesterday.
\n\u201cFrom the way they received it, I think it is possible that the strike will be called off within a week, maximum.\u201d
\nAdamu said while explaining reasons for the strike, ASUU accused the Federal Government of failing to keep its side of the agreement.
\nHe assured that the Ministry of Finance had agreed to do the needful with regard to releasing funds as soon as possible.
\nHe said: \u201cThe union had asked for N23 billion to be paid.
\n\u201cWe said the condition for that N23 billion to be released was for them to account for the N30 billion they had taken which is a total of N53 billion and they were not able to account for it.
\n\u201cThe Minister of Finance then undertook to do the audit from the ministry and we agreed that the result will be known within six months.
\n\u201cThe Federal Government undertook to be paying them N1.5 billion each month during the time they are waiting for the outcome of the audit.
\n\u201cTheir grouse now is that the forensic audit promised by the minister of finance has not been done and the money promised has not been paid.
\n\u201cSo, at our meeting two days ago, we agreed that we will pay them and do forensic audit on the entire N53 billion.
\n\u201cI wrote to the minister and she has already approved it and this money will be paid; probably on Monday, they will be able to receive the cheque.\u201d
\nAdamu, however, stated that his ministry did not agree on some issues during the meeting with the union.
\nHe said: \u201cThere are other issues which we did not agree on and that is their request to be taken out of Treasury Single Account.
\n\u201cI told them that it is not possible because this is a new policy and government is not going to change it for anyone.
\n\u201cConcerning their salary shortfall, we said a lot of the reasons spring from what they are doing wrong.
\n\u201cThey do a lot of employment without proper authority.
\n\u201cFor instance, a university can decide to recruit 50 people and IPPIS is not aware. So, we insisted that institutions must stop doing that and they accepted.
\n\u201cThere is also the issue of the registration of their pension commission. I think they have one or two issues to iron out with PENCOM and I believe they will also be able to solve the problem within a week.\u2019\u2019
\nThe Chairman of the senate committee, Senator Barau Jibrin, said the committee was impressed with the briefing by the minister on the matter.
\nHe explained that the seriousness of the issue made the committee members to cut short their recess, and said that from the assurance given by the minister, students and lecturers would return to school shortly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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