August 28, (THEWILL) – The Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will reconvene on September 6.
Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman, disclosed this on Wednesday, after a closed-door meeting with the leadership of ASUU led by its President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke.
The Union had issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government to promptly address outstanding issues, including the conclusion of the renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU Agreement based on the late Nimi Briggs Committee’s draft Agreement of 2021; release of withheld three-and-half months salaries on account of the 2022 strike action; release of unpaid salaries of staff on sabbatical, part-time and adjunct appointments owing to the application of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), and release of outstanding third-party deductions such as check-off dues and cooperative contributions.
Others are funding for the revitalisation of public universities (partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government’s Budget); Earned Academic Allowances (EAA) (partly captured in the 2023 Federal Government’s Budget); proliferation of universities by Federal and State Governments; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities, and University Transparency and Accountability Solution (UTAS) in place of IPPIS.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting with ASUU leadership, Prof. Mamman, who expressed hope that the issues would be resolved before the next meeting, said sub-committees have been set up to look into the issues raised by the lecturers and report progress by next week.
He said, “Hopefully, we have a very good window for the resolution of the issues. So, the task before us now is to work on those modalities and the processes and procedures we all agreed to study the problems.
“So, we are coming back on September 6 to report back on the tasks we have set out to work towards resolution of the issues. It has been a very friendly meeting, with a very good understanding of where we are and what we want to achieve for the university sector.”
Asked if the lecturers would go ahead with the strike if no agreement was reached by September 6, Prof. Osodeke said, “As a union, our leadership doesn’t decide for our members. Whatever we get by September 6 will be communicated to our members and they will decide on what to do next.”
