In a recent statement, the Federal Government of Nigeria has claimed “a lot is happening behind the scenes” as it seeks to resolve the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated this while responding to State House correspondents after the weekly federal executive council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa.
ASUU embarked on strike since February 14 and since then, all the public universities have been shut down.
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“I wish that the ASUU issue is as simple as many of us think it is. I don’t think it’s that simple. But I want to assure you that a lot is going on behind the scenes.
“And I think probably the Minister of Education will be better positioned to give the details. But like any government, if we’re not concerned, we would not set up all the committees which have been working. If we are not concerned, we will not be looking for means to even assuage the feelings of the Union.
“We’re worried, we’re concerned, and we’ll continue to work towards finding an early resolution of the problem,” Mohammed said.
The striking Academic Staff Union of Universities has also reported that it is awaiting the response of the Federal Government on its demands.
The Federal Government’s renegotiation committee headed by Prof. Nimi Briggs met with ASUU leadership on Monday in continuation of the renegotiation of the FGN-ASUU 2009 agreements with the four university unions, which are all currently on strike.
The President of ASUU, Emmanuel Osodeke, told our correspondent that the meeting was fair, saying they were expecting the government to respond to the issues they discussed with the committee.
When asked if ASUU would call the strike off soon since it had a fair deliberation with Briggs committee, Osodeke said, ‘‘I don’t know if we are calling off the strike soon. We are waiting for the final response from the government.
“It is a committee of different government agencies. They need to go back to their principal and look at what we agreed on and then get back to us. When they respond to us, we will give you full details.”
He revealed that University Transparency and Accountability Solution is still undergoing test by National Information Technology Development Agency, adding that ASUU has had three meetings with the Federal Government’s committee.
Osodeke also said there was no new invitation from the committee.
He said, “They will call us when they are ready for another meeting, but none for now. We have had about three meetings with them.’’
ASUU commenced its ongoing strike on February 14, 2022, after the Federal Government failed to meet some of its demands including, the release of revitalisation funds for universities, renegotiation of the 2009 FGN/ASUU agreement, release of earned allowances for university lecturers, and deployment of the University Transparency and Accountability Solution.