FG, ASUU reach partial agreement

The Federal Government and the striking Academic Staff Union of
Universities (ASUU) have reached a partial agreement, according to Dr
Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment.

ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi

Ngige made the announcement on Monday at a reconciliation meeting in
Abuja aimed at finding ways of resolving the strike which commenced on
Nov. 5.

“We have finished our deliberation for today. I am happy to report
that we touched some areas of understanding in implementation from the
Memorandum of Action which we agreed to in 2017.

“Some of these areas we have substantial compliance and some other areas have not been fully dealt with.

“Like the issue of shortfall in salaries of some Federal
Universities’ workers and lecturers, ASUU has given a list to the
Accountant-General’s Office and we have agreed that by Wednesday that
list should be cross-checked by the Presidential Initiative on
Continuous Auditing.

“So, the Accountant-General’s Office is to get back to us by Wednesday.

“We also have the issue of Earned allowances, revitalisation, these
are issues of 2009 agreement and partial implementation and we have
agreed on the modus operandi to look into the fund situation, this is
due to low revenue on the part of government. ”

He noted that the meeting identified one area to look for the fund
for the revalidation, that the appropriate government organ would be
contacted on the issue.

Ngige said that government was sure to have good information for the striking lecturers.

He said the same situation applied to other allowances, adding: “we
have agreed on what we are going to do to make sure that the outstanding
amount is handled in a way that all parties will be properly
accommodated.

” We also discussed the issue of state universities and agreed also
that even if education is on the concurrent list, the universities
should be properly funded and staffed so that we do not produce
half-baked students from those universities.

“In realisation of this the Ministry of Education will set up a
committee, that would engage the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and the
Minister of Education has taken steps in that direction to formalise the
interaction.

” The discussions are fruitful and we do hope that in the next
adjourned date we would have had the requisite result on the few
agreements reached today.”

The minister said he hoped with the agreement reached that the union
would call off the strike in order for students to go back to school
and those who had exams could go and take their exams.

He said the next meeting would be at 4p.m. on Dec. 17.

On his part, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi, ASUU National President, said they had a useful discussion.

“Our own understanding is that we heard promises made on the part of
government, we shall await the report on all the issues, which they have
made promises.

“Only after that, we can get back to our members to take a decision,” he said.