National Telescope national telescope newspaper
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) will on thursday meet with the federal government team to find ways of determining the differences between the two parties.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, who made the confirmation in a text message to THISDAY last night, stated that the government has invited the union leaders for dialogue.
“Yes, we have invited them for Thursday afternoon by 2p.m,”
While giving an update on the union’s action, ASUU President, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi, in the report yesterday, that based on the resolution reached at its National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Monday, the union would send a letter of notice of warning strike to the federal Ministry of Education.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives yesterday resolved to intervene in the crisis by meeting with both parties today.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion by Dachung Bagos representing Jos South/East Federal Constituency titled “Urgent Public Importance and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Strike.”
While presenting the motion, Bagos noted that ASUU had on March 9, 2020, after its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting held in Enugu State, threatened to go on two weeks warning strike.
The lawmaker, who noted that schools had just resumed for academic activities, expressed concern that the strike if allowed to take full effect, would cost a lot of students an extra academic year.
According to him, the continued yearly strike by ASUU is becoming an embarrassment to the country.
The House, therefore, resolved that the leadership should intervene in the ASUU strike.
Wunmi Onanuga, who supported the motion, said the fight of the lecturers for their right had taken a while, adding that “they don’t have to be begging for what is theirs.”
In the same vein, Rimande Shawulu recalled that a few years ago, Nigerians reportedly spent N5 billion on education in Ghana and £300 million in the United Kingdom for the same purpose, making the Nigerian education to be so brittle.
He warned that a strike at this time would worsen the situation “because about a million candidates are seeking admission and only about 250,000 will get placements while the remaining 800,000 have nowhere to go.”
He expressed worries about the seemingly intractable face-off between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government.
