Nigerian govt meets ASUU, parties schedule another meeting

The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, on Wednesday, met with the leadership of the Academic Staff Union (ASUU) to avert another round of strike the union recently threatened to embark on.

The minister said he has set up a sub-committee to look into the demands of the ASUU and find a lasting solution to the demands.

ASUU, on 22 August, issued a 21-day ultimatum to meet its demands failing which it would commence an indefinite strike.

The union asked the federal and state governments to address all the “outstanding issues” hindering the development of the nation’s universities, over which it last went on strike for eight in 2022.

Mr Mamman, a professor, and the ASUU leadership reached a compromise at Wednesday’s closed-door meeting held at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja, the spokesperson for the education ministry, Folasade Boriowo, confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday evening.

Ms Boriowo also disclosed that both parties are to meet again on 6 September to continue discussions.

Wednesday’s meeting substantially eased the apprehension of another ASUU strike, which effectively shuts down Nigerian public universities whenever it occurs.

Addressing journalists after the meeting, the ASUU President, Emmanuel Osodeke, a professor of soil science, expressed hope that the lingering issues would be addressed ahead of the 6 September meeting. Excerpts of his interview were shared with journalists who were present.

He said, “We have met to discuss all the issues and review them. We have given the government between now and the pm meeting to see what they have done.

“We believe in the interest of the Nigerian child and to protect their interest if the issues are resolved.”

Mrs Boriowo also told PREMIUM TIMES over the phone that the minister, earlier in the day, inaugurated a 16-man committee to look into the needs assessment of Nigerian public tertiary institutions.

Today’s meeting

Wednesday’s meeting, PREMIUM TIMES learnt, lasted only about two hours at the education ministry.

The meeting, earlier scheduled for Monday, followed a 21-day ultimatum issued by the lecturers’ union for the government to address their outstanding demands, most of which border o better welfare for the academics and funding for the universities.

The union wants the government to complete the renegotiation of the 2009 ASUU-Federal Government Agreement and begin implementation of the same. The union is also protesting the continuous use of a centralised payment platform, the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS), for the payment of its members’ salaries.

Though Mr Mamman said in December that the university had been excluded from the payment platform, ASUU insists that its members are still being paid through what it described as ‘News IPPIS’, which it says is the same with the platform it rejected.

In 2022, ASUU presented the University Transparency and Accountability Solutions (UTAS), a payment platform it developed for domestication.