By Our Reporter
The Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, are on the verge of reaching a truce to avert an impending strike by the union.
At the meeting held on Wednesday between the two parties at the Minister of Education’s office in Abuja, both sides were hopeful of a meaningful outcome of negotiations, and that all outstanding issues would be amicably resolved.
The ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, told journalists that the meeting became imperative as issues affecting the university system persist even under the present administration.
Recall that recently the union had threatened to embark on strike over various issues, if their grievances were not attended to. ASUU had gone ahead to issue a three- week ultimatum to the federal government to see to their demands or face an industrial action.
After the meeting, Osodeke reportedly disclosed that both parties were asked to set up committees to look into the 10 demands ASUU listed in a letter it wrote to the Federal Government on Monday.
He said that they would meet again with the government in two weeks for another review.
He said that ASUU had not decided on anything yet but had only created committees to look into their demands, adding that there were still some things that they need to do before another meeting with the government scheduled to take place in the next couple of weeks.
“We had discussions on all the issues and we have given assignments to some people to look at and we have agreed on the way forward.
“So, we will go back and give the details to our members. What is important is that we have started the process and our prayer is that we resolve it for the interest of our young men and the interest of the nation.
On his part, the education minister, Tahir Mamman reportedly assured ASUU of the commencement of consistent consultations between both parties to overcome the challenges in the university.
“We’ve had a very good meeting and a very productive one. We’ve discussed progress on how to ensure that the system works well and lots of the issues we talked about are issues we all inherited and ongoing. So, we discussed them all without exception and we have a consensus on the way forward.
“A lot of consultations will continue on some information we don’t have which are beyond the scope of the ministry and which will require us to connect with our colleagues in other ministries,’’ he stated.