Federal Gov’t, ASUU Meet Over Strike Notice Monday

Federal government will Monday meet with officials of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other relevant stakeholders to address the strike notice.

Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, disclosed this during a briefing in Abuja yesterday.

ASUU a few days ago, issued a 21-day notice of strike to the government over several unresolved issues, notably, emergency revitalisation fund of public universities; payment of outstanding earned academic allowances; and release of withheld salaries, promotion arrears, and third-party deductions of our members.

The other issues include stoppage of illegal recruitments; proliferation of public universities/abuse of universities’ laws, regulations and processes; and removal of universities from the treasury single account and new IPPIS vis-a-vis to herald the autonomy of our universities.

Mamman told journalists at a press conference to mark his one year in office that letters of invitation had been sent to ASUU officials and several other organisations that would be relevant in the meeting.

“Most of the issues raised by ASUU are being attended to. For instance, the issue of exit from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) has since been resolved by the president. Bureaucracy is the reason for delay in the implementation of that directive. But by the time we meet on Monday, some of these issues would be discussed and resolved,” he said.

He said President Bola Tinubu was committed to academic stability in schools, and would not hold back any support that would ensure that the era of academic disruption in the tertiary institutions are over.

“Most of the demands ASUU started in 1981. And virtually all governments had fair share of ASUU strikes. But the president made a commitment during the campaign that a permanent solution would be provided this time, and he has shown that in his steps and actions,” he added.

He further appealed to ASUU to be considerate in their actions and open-minded in their approach to the negotiation table so that interests of all parties would be properly represented.