Strike: ASUU, Federal Govt  Meeting Ends In  Deadlock

The meeting between the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the federal government has again ended without an agreement.

The union met with the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee yesterday at the National Universities Commission (NUC) in Abuja, with the hope of resolving the six months old strike by public university lecturers.

Although the meeting was a closed door one, LEADERSHIP gathered that it ended without any tangible agreement.

ASUU has been on strike since February 14 this year, over issues surrounding poor funding of public universities, disagreement over salaries payment platforms, and unpaid earned allowances, as contained in the agreement with the federal government in 2009.

However, efforts to renegotiate the agreement and end the incessant strikes by the union started in 2017 when the f government inaugurated a committee headed by Professor Babalakin, which was later replaced by Professor Manzali in 2020, but the latter exercise was halted by the outbreak of COVID-19.

Professor Briggs took over the renegotiation in May 2021 and has since then not been able to reach any agreement with the universities’ unions, a development that has grounded government-owned universities since February 14 this year.

A senior member of ASUU, who does not want his name mentioned, said last night that “members of the Briggs committee did not come with any new offer on the table, other than to plead with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their concerns will be included in the 2023 budget.”

However, efforts to speak to the ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, proved abortive as he didn’t pick calls nor react to text messages sent to his mobile phone.