FG/ASUU meeting inconclusive again

A meeting between the Federal Government and striking university lecturers on Friday was again inconclusive.

The Governor of Benue State, Gabriel Suswam, who was drafted to intervene in the face-off between the government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), told newsmen that there were still outstanding issues to be resolved next week for ASUU to call off the strike.

The two knotty issues according to him, are earned allowance and funding of university education in view of the infrastructure deficit in the system.
He added that all other issues raised by ASUU had been agreed on apart from the two issues pending.

Suswam, however, disclosed that while the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, would meet with ASUU leadership on Monday to resolve the issue of the earned allowance, he and members of implementation committee on Needs Assessment Committee would also meet with ASUU next Thursday to finalise issues on funding.

The governor expressed optimism that all the pending issues would be resolved next week for the union to call off the strike.

He admitted the decay and rot in universities, stressing that his committee would ensure that there was sustained funding of universities in Nigeria.

Earlier in his opening remark at the meeting, Senator Anyim expressed determination of the Federal Government to ensure that the issues were resolved for the lecturers to return to classroom.

He said: “Our meeting today is blessed with injection of new hands, new faces and new minds. It is expected that our meeting today will be fruitful because we would have more hands helping us to resolve what is outstanding.

“You might also recalled that the implementation committee of Needs Assessment Report to Nigerian universities was just inaugurated. The chairman of that committee is Governor Gabriel Suswam. After the inauguration of that committee, we appealed to him to join us in this meeting that is following soon after.

“On this note, I am convinced that their desire to see this matter resolved is simply because of their commitment to national progress,” Anyim said.
He added that the Needs assessment was undertaken based on the desire to revitalise university education in Nigeria.

Implementation of the Needs Assessment report is one of the key demands of ASUU that led to the three-week-old strike that has paralysed academic activities in universities across the nation.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation inaugurated the committee headed by Governor Suswam.

He noted that the committee was set up in line with the agreement with both the academic and non-academic staff union of universities as part of efforts to revitalise the nation’s universities.

Anyim charged the committee members to interface with all agencies providing funding support to universities with the aim of appropriately channelling support to identified priorities.