ASUU to Meet FG on Thursday

The Federal Government will on Thursday hold a meeting with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities to resolve the lingering strike in the nation ’ s universities.

ASUU President , Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi , confirmed on Tuesday that he had received an invitation to a meeting at the Ministry of Labour and Employment , Abuja .
Also , the National Association of Nigerian Students has issued a two -week ultimatum to the Federal Government to resolve the ASUU strike.
The group , on Tuesday, threatened violence if the government failed to prevail on the union to call off the strike.

Speaking to one of our correspondents on the telephone , Ogunyemi said the ASUU negotiating team would be at the meeting to hear what the government had done so far in respect of the seven demands tabled for implementation .
He stated, “ We have a scheduled meeting on Thursday; we received the invitation today ( Tuesday) . We would be at the meeting . We go to every meeting with open mind and also believe the government will come with open mind and if they ( government officials ) mean well, we will resolve the issue. ”

The don said he did not envisage any problem, adding that the government would be expected to highlight the demands it had implemented and to give a time frame on the ones that would be implemented subsequently.
“ Our demands are clear, seven issues with timelines . They are expected to have started implementing them ; we don’ t see much problem here .
“ They will just tell us how far they have implemented them and tell us which ones they cannot implement for now , and give us the time frame ( for implementation) , ” Ogunyemi stated.
Asked if the government had released the N 23bn it promised last month to the universities, the union leader said he did not know if this had been done .
But NANS factional president , Haruna Kadiri , who led his group on protest to the Ministry of Education , Abuja on Tuesday, over the strike , stated that students bore the brunt of labour dispute between university lecturers and government .
This, he noted , made them unattractive to the labour market which he said often preferred graduates from private universities who concluded their academic programmes within stipulated time .

Kadiri said , “ We are here to demand to know when the strike would be called off . The government has not been tackling the issues that led to the strike , but politicising them and dividing the ranks of the lecturers.
“ As researchers , ASUU should carry out research and find solutions to the issues instead of going on strike.u
“ We are issuing a two - week ultimatum for the strike to be resolved . If after the ultimatum , the FG and ASUU didn ’ t resolve the strike, the next protest will not be peaceful . We would carry out civil unrest and we are ready to be detained in the guardroom . ”
The student leader also condemned the new cut -off marks for university and polytechnic admissions as announced by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, describing the cut - off marks as retrogressive and ‘ anti - education . ’
The Permanent Secretary , Ministry of Education , Sonny Echono, who addressed the students , assured them that the government was working to resolve the crisis .