Students to stay home a while longer as FG, ASUU reach partial agreement
The Federal Government and ASUU already have an agreement in place, Labour Minister Chris Ngige has said.
It has been well over a month since lecturers across federal and state universities downed their tools over the FG’s refusal to implement earlier agreements made with the union.
Ngige said on Monday that the latest round of meeting showed positive progress.
He said the committee touched on some areas of implementation of the Memorandum of Action which the FG agreed to in 2017.
“Some of these areas we have substantial compliance and some other areas have not been fully dealt with,” he said.
“Like the issue of shortfall in salaries of some Federal Universities’ workers and lecturers, ASUU has given a list to the Accountant-General’s Office and we have agreed that by Wednesday that list should be cross-checked by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Auditing.
“So, the Accountant-General’s Office is to get back to us by Wednesday.
“We also have the issue of earned allowances, revitalisation, these are issues of 2009 agreement and partial implementation and we have agreed on the modus operandi to look into the fund situation, this is due to low revenue on the part of government.”
The minister added that other agreements were discussed and being looked into. He said a committee had been set up for the purpose.
“We also discussed the issue of state universities and agreed also that even if education is on the concurrent list, the universities should be properly funded and staffed so that we do not produce half-baked students from those universities,” he said.
ASUU National President, Prof. Abiodun Ogunyemi said the association would only call off the strike it commenced on November 5 when the FG makes good on its promises.
Another meeting between the parties has been scheduled for December 17.
