FG RE-OPENS TALKS WITH ASUU OVER STRIKE

THE Federal Government may have reopened dialogue with
the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities
(ASUU), in a bid to end the over two months old strike.
This came just as the National Association of Nigerians
Students (NANS) urged both government and ASUU to
return back to the negotiation table, with each party willing
to shift ground from their previous positions.
Indications to the new development with ASUU emerged on
Monday, when journalists were called to cover the meeting,
which was eventually postponed till next week, with a
ministry official saying this was to allow the supervising
Minister of Education, Mr Nyesom Wike, get proper briefing
on the current standpoint of the issues involved.
Wike was joined by the Minister of Labour and Productivity,
Chief Emeka Wogu, for the meeting scheduled for 12 noon
at the Federal Ministry of Education conference room before
it was called off.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that the resumption of talks
followed the exit of the former Minister of Education,
Professor Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i, who was dropped last
week by President Goodluck Jonathan alongside eight other
ministers.
The negotiation between the government and leadership of
ASUU broke down over disagreement on payment of
academic earned allowance to union members.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian students, under the auspices of
NANS, have called on both the Federal Government and
ASUU to return back to the negotiation table, in order to
resolve their differences in good faith.
Acting Senate president of NANS, John Shima, while
addressing newsmen in Abuja, lauded the sack of Professor
Rufa’i and other ministers, as part of the initiatives of
President Jonathan to retool the government.
“ASUU and Federal Government should go back to the
negotiating table. Even after wars, issues are resolved at the
roundtable. Nigerian students have been idle for 78 days.
“Nigerian students are tired of sitting at home. Both parties
are urged to shift ground to ensure quick resolution of the
crisis.
“We lost almost three years of study time in the last 10
years due to strikes; the lost time being enough to graduate
a student in Germany,” Shima said.
Meanwhile, Benue State governor, Mr Gabriel Suswam, has
vowed to get tough on striking lecturers of Benue State
University, Makurdi, by evoking “no work, no pay” policy if
they refuse to call off what he described as their “sympathy
strike,” which had paralysed academic activities in the state.
Suswam said state-owned universities like that of Benue had
no reason whatsoever to remain on strike, since it was
federal universities and not states that were earlier involved
in the
negotiation with the Federal Government.
Suswam explained that Benue State University had been
benefiting fully from the earned allowance for which the
Federal Government voted N30 billion and had no cause to
be complaining.
The governor, while addressing communicant members of the
Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria, at Achusa village,
Makurdi, at the weekend, decried the extent to which the
strike had gone and admonished the authorities of the
institution to expedite action towards suspending the
protracted strike for students to resume in the next one
week. He condemned the level of dilapidated infrastructure
in most state-owned universities, including Benue State
University, but applauded the Federal Government for the
release of N100 billion to assuage the problem. Benue State
University, the governor said, got N950 million for the
execution of six projects within the institution, while he
expressed optimism that the funds would be judiciously used
for the growth of the university.
Source:- The Tribune