The Federal Government and ASUU had met at the National University Commission, NUC, in Abuja, on Tuesday, to iron out outstanding grey areas in their talks as a prelude to re-opening the varsities which were shut six months ago due to the intractable impasse.
But they could not reach an agreement; so the strike continues. The Federal Government was represented by the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee set up to resolve the logjam which has had a paralytic effect on the students as well as their parents and guardians..
A senior member of ASUU, who craved anonymity told Channels Television that members of the Briggs renegotiation committee did not come with any new offer on the table.
Rather, the ASUU source said, the committee pleaded with the lecturers to suspend the ongoing strike, with promises that their concerns will be included in the 2023 budget.
According to the source, the meeting, which started at about 12 pm, lasted for about three hours without any agreement reached.
ASUU president, Professor Emmanuel Osodeke, had, Monday night, disclosed that the union had reached an agreement with the government to adopt the University Transparency Accountability Solution (UTAS) as the payment platform of lecturers and suspend the strike.
“We have not had any serious communication though they have invited us for a meeting on one issue, tomorrow (Tuesday), which is the issue of renegotiation,” Osodeke said on Channels Television programme, Politics Today.
“You know that there are seven issues why we are on strike. They are inviting for discussion on issue of renegotiation, tomorrow, which is renegotiation of the 2009 agreement.”
The Crest recalls that ASUU has been on strike since February 14, 2022, over the federal government’s failure to implement its demands on salaries and allowances of lecturers, improved funding for universities, as well as the adoption of UTAS against the federal government’s preferred payment platform — Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
