The Academic Staff Union of Universities, which is currently on strike, has stated that it is expecting the Federal Government’s response to its requests.
On Monday, the Federal Government’s renegotiation team, led by Prof. Nimi Briggs, met with ASUU leadership to continue renegotiating the FGN-ASUU 2009 agreements with the four university unions, all of which are currently on strike.
The meeting was fair, according to ASUU President Emmanuel Osodeke, who added that they were expecting the government to respond to the problems they discussed with the committee.
When asked if ASUU would put off the strike soon after a fair deliberation with the Briggs committee, Osodeke responded, ‘‘I don’t know if we are calling off the strike soon. We are waiting for the final response from the government.
“It is a committee of different government agencies. They need to go back to their principal and look at what we agreed on and then get back to us. When they respond to us, we will give you full details.”
He added that the National Information Technology Development Agency is still testing the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, and that ASUU has met with the Federal Government’s committee three times.
The committee, according to Osodeke, has not issued any additional invitations.
He said, “They will call us when they are ready for another meeting, but none for now. We have had about three meetings with them.’’
After the Federal Government failed to meet some of ASUU’s demands, including the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution, the union went on strike on February 14, 2022.
