The Federal Government is holding a crucial meeting with vice chancellors and pro chancellors of federal universities in a bid to end the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
The Federal Government is holding a crucial meeting with vice chancellors and pro chancellors of federal universities in a bid to end the prolonged strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.
This is just as the education minister, Adamu Adamu, lamented that he had been in a dark period of personal anguish and internal turmoil following the lingering strike by ASUU.
Adamu, at meeting with vice-chancellors and pro-chancellors of federal universities at the National Universities Commission in Abuja on Tuesday, said: “I used to deceive myself that in a climate of frankness and with mutual goodwill, it will fall to my lot to bring an end to the incessant strikes in the education sector.
“I called you today not to share with you my anguish but to share with you the details of what we have done and what remains to be done. And certainly, a lot remains to be done. But for very different reasons, the current positions of the Government and ASUU on the future of negotiations seem to have coincided.
“For me, this is a position I would have wanted us to reach after an amicable resolution of all the issues contained in the 2009 Agreements. It appears that we are running ahead of the negotiations but not for the right reasons. The President of ASUU has been reported to have said the Union would no longer negotiate with the current Federal Government.
“We must, together, continue to work to restore our public universities to where they were in the 60s and 70s. As the most important officers in our university system, Pro-Chancellors, and Vice-Chancellors, must demonstrate more commitment to ending the ongoing strike.
“The government will continue to reasonably enhance the working conditions of all university staff, academic and non-teaching”.
