Nigerian students in Federal government-owned universities may have to remain home for a little longer as talks between the Federal government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, suffered another major setback – ended in a deadlock.
The meeting which held on Tuesday, with a bid to finding a solution to the protracted ASUU strike ended without any agreement to end the strike. As a result, the strike which is on its sixth month continues.
The striking lecturers had met with the Professor Nimi Briggs Committee set up by the government on Tuesday at the National University Commission in Abuja with high hopes of resolving the impasse.
Sources revealed that members of the Briggs renegotiation committee did not come with any new offer on the table, instead pleaded with the lecturers to call off the strike with promises that their demands will be factored in , in next year’s budget.
The Three hour meeting produced no tangible result.
ASUU has been on strike since February 14 over the government’s failure to implement its demands on salaries and allowances of lecturers, improved funding for universities as well as the adoption of UTAS against the federal government’s preferred payment platform — Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
The strike has gone on for over six months shutting down federal government-owned universities .
ASUU had accused the federal government of being insincere in its commitment to ensuring that schools are reopened so that the children can resume classes
Speaking recently on a national television program, the president of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, said that if the government were serious about reopening universities issues of IPPIS and UTAS would have been put to rest because the test has been done and it has been agreed with the chief of staff, UTAS will be implemented to cover the university.
“If this government is serious, this strike will not last more than two weeks. If you recall we were going to suppose to go on strike in November, we didn’t start it because NIREC came in and intervened. We conceded to them.”