A follow-up meeting between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to further negotiate and resolve issues bothering on lecturers’ welfare has been set for September 6.
The Minister of Education,Prof. Tahir Mamman disclosed this while addressing the press on Wednesday in Abuja after a meeting between the two parties.
He stated that the follow-up meeting would ensure that grey areas are resolved to avert the planned industrial action.
Tahir expressed optimism that universities would not be shut, adding that sub-committees have been set up to look into the issues and report progress by next week.
“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’s been a very friendly meeting, a very good understanding of where we are and what we want to achieve for the universities sector,” he said.
Also speaking , ASUU President, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, expressed hope that the issues would be resolved before the next meeting.
Osodeke when asked whether the Union would press ahead with strike if no resolution is reached by September 6, said it would be decided by members.
“As a Union, leadership don’t decide for our members. Whatever we get by September 6 will be communicated to our members and they would decide on what to do next,” he said.
Recall that last week, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) had issued a 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to promptly address the outstanding issues that have encumbered the development of Nigeria universities.
President of ASUU, Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, handed down the ultimatum during a press conference at the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State.
He said that the notice for an impending showdown with the government has become necessary following a comprehensive review of the outcomes of the union’s previous engagements with the government.
Among the grievances listed by ASUU are renegotiation of the FGN/ASUU 2009 agreement, withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and third party deductions of members; funding for the revitalization of public universities and payment of earned academic allowances.
Other complaints include: allegation of illegal recruitment; proliferation of public universities/abuse of universities’ rules and processes, Treasury Single Account; use of new curriculum for Universities; diversion of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) intervention fund to the student loan scheme; implementation of the reports of visitation panels to universities.
The lecturers are also vexed that eight months after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) excluded universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other tertiary institutions from the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) payment platform, it is yet to be implemented.