Federal government has commenced negotiations with the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to avert the strike threatened by the lecturers.
The government’s delegation was led by the minister of education, Prof. Tahir Mamman.
The two parties’ meeting yesterday was held behind closed doors.
Mamman was quoted as saying the meeting would provide an opportunity for both parties to deliberate on issues affecting the university system.
ASUU president, Emmanuel Osodeke, who led the union’s delegation, told newsmen that the meeting was to deliberate on lingering issues affecting the universities to avert the planned strike actions.
“There are many outstanding issues within the system and we believe that before now, they would have been taken care of. The issues would have been resolved in line with the promise made by President Bola Tinubu and there would not be a strike in the university system.
“We hope that this meeting will be able to resolve some of these issues so that we can move forward as a country as well as our university system,” he said.
ASUU has recently accused the government of failing to fulfil agreements reached with the union and threatened to go on strike once the ultimatum given to the government to uphold its end of the bargain expires.
