May end strike soon
There are indications that the conflict between the Federal Government and the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities may soon be over following the outcome of the meeting between the leaders of the academic union and the representatives of the government on Tuesday.
While the outcome of the meeting had yet to be made public, Emmanuel Osodeke, ASUU president, was quoted as saying that his team would report discussions at the meeting to its members and subsequently make its decision known to the government.
Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, indicated that going by the agreements between the two parties, ASUU was expected to “talk to its members, show them the proposal that has been offered by the government so that they can call off the strike.”
It was reported that the major items on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting were the Earned Academic Allowances and revitalisation fund for universities.
Ngige said, “Like I told you the last time, a lot of the items have been dealt with extensively and some of them are work in progress.”
According to the minister, one of the areas yet to have been concluded is the renegotiation of the 2009 FGN-ASUU agreement.
He stated that the Ministry of Education had set up a committee to look into the submitted report of Munzali Jibril-led Renegotiation Committee.
Munzali, a professor, took over the negotiation following the resignation of the former chairman of the governing council of the University of Lagos, Akoka, Wale Babalakin, as the head of the government team.
He stressed that it became important that allowances requested by ASUU should be in tandem with the structure available at the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.
In six weeks, he said, the committee at the Ministry of Education “will round off everything and send all.
“So, today, the Ministry of Education has set up internal committee in their ministry to look at the product of Prof. Munzali’s committee’s work. Again, Prof. Munzali’s committee has been defunct because a lot of people, including Munzali, are no longer pro-chancellors.
“A new team has been set up because they needed to have a second look at that document, and make sure, with ASUU’s contribution, that some of the allowances are not against the NSIWC’s fixed salaries and allowances.”
Also, he said that a joint committee of ASUU members, officials of the National Information Technology Development Agency, and independent IT experts had been given up till March 8 to come up with the report of a joint review of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.
He added that his ministry had reached out to the National Universities Commission to set up a committee to come up with the computation of allowances for universities and forward it to the Finance Minister in the next three weeks.
